


The Green-Eyed Monster Named Jealousy

by LegendsOfAvalance



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Batwoman (TV 2019), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014), Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: After Crisis, AvaLance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Jealous Ava, Jealous Nyssa, Suicidal Thoughts, SuperCorp, Temporary Character Death, Zarlie - Freeform, superfriends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:55:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 52,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23098936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LegendsOfAvalance/pseuds/LegendsOfAvalance
Summary: The Nyssa and Ava jealously fic we've all been waiting for (or maybe just me). Sara is trying to cope with the post crisis world when there is a threat to her past. Her past is in trouble during her time with the League of Assassins and if she doesn't fix it, she disappears. The mission goes wrong and Ava has to take care of it on her own. Knowing nearly nothing about Sara's time with the league, she has to enlist the help of Nyssa to get Sara back.
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer, Barry Allen/Iris West, Lena Luthor/Kara Danvers, Nyssa al Ghul/Sara Lance, Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak, Ray Palmer/Nora Darhk, Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe, Sara Lance/Oliver Queen, Zari Tomaz/Charlie, sara lance/alex danvers
Comments: 37
Kudos: 241





	1. Return

It was about 12 in the morning, Sara and Ava were relaxing in their apartment after a long week of sending encores back to hell. They hadn’t had much time in private lately because of the whole crisis debacle and everything with Sara spending time in Star City to be with her old team and mourn the death of Oliver. Sara lay in bed staring at the dark ceiling, her forehead scrunched up in deep thought.

“Um hello? Earth Prime to Sara, what’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?”, Ava asked. Sara seemed to snap out of her trance and played it off, cozying into Ava’s side, “Nothing, my love”.

Ava turned over to look Sara in the face and scoffed. “Really, nothing? Come on Sara I know you better than that. Don’t hide from me. I know I wasn’t really there for you after crisis and everything with Oliver and I totally messed up trying to comfort you with the whole documentary thing but I’m here now. I was so focused on trying to make things better for you that I didn’t even stop and listen to you. I’m sorry about that and I tried to blame it on being a clone and all but really that’s not it. I’m just…new to this whole being in love thing. My entire life has just been following the rules and that’s just it, there are no rules or guidelines to loving you and sometimes I get a little lost.”

Sara sighed, “It’s okay, I get it, really. This is new for me too, I’ve never been this crazy about someone before and you know I tend to keep to myself with my feelings and go into my corner. Ya, the documentary thing did kinda suck, but at least we got some laughs out of it and a crazy video to show our kids one day. Plus you made up for it in the end.” Sara pulled Ava back down to her and started planting soft kisses down the smooth skin of her neck down to her collarbone where she nipped playfully earning a yelp out of Ava.

“Oh no you don’t, you’re not distracting me this time Miss Lance. You are trying to act like nothing's bothering you but I can see it in your eyes, you’re hurting. Talk to me, please. Let me help”, Ava pleaded with a gentle smile and caring eyes.

She traced the muscles of Sara’s back with her fingertips in an attempt to soothe her tired girlfriend. After a few moments of nothing but silence between the pair, Ava acknowledged that she was going to start this conversation if she ever wanted to know what was bothering Sara.

“You know, crisis was difficult for me too”, Ava whispered. “I know we experienced two totally different things and it was probably much worse for you…but I died. Well no, I didn’t just die, I was completely wiped from existence”, Sara flinched at her words but stayed quiet. “One day everything was fine, I was waiting for you to come home to me after your trivia night with Ray. I was going to make you a nice dinner, well attempt to anyway, then cuddle up next to you and binge watch whatever show you wanted. But you never came home. You sent me a text letting me know you had some super friend business to attend to and asked me to keep the team in check while you were gone. After that, nothing. It’s okay though, I understand, you were off being a hero, saving the world." “Thank you for that by the way”, she added with a chuckle. “Anyway, next thing I knew, there was this giant, ominous, scarlet-colored wave barreling towards Earth. I rallied the team and got ready to take on whatever it was. Gideon tried to get some info on it from the satellites but there were no signals to be found. We took off and went into orbit to see what was going on and then I saw it. The planet was just disappearing, my home was disappearing. And there was nothing I could do about it. Despite that, all I could think of was you. I didn’t know where, or when you were. I didn’t even know if you were on the same Earth as me. I tried to call you, hell, I even had Gideon search the multiverse for you to no avail. You were just gone, nowhere to be found. We tried to run for a while. The team was distraught and I took your seat and piloted us away from the wave until I realized my attempts at escape were futile. This wave of whatever, was going to catch up to us and we would disappear too, just like our home. I left the bridge and went to your room. I buried myself in your sheets and closed my eyes waiting for the inevitable. I felt…I don’t know this might sound a little weird, but I felt content. You have given me so much happiness and love during the short time we have gotten to spend together that I felt I could die happy. I mean don’t get me wrong, I was by no means excited to get wiped out by a mysterious otherworldly wave of red. But I was fortunate for the time we had gotten to spend together. I hoped that you were out there somewhere and that you were safe, regardless of what happened to me. I thought to myself, if Sara can die twice, who knows maybe I can too. Gideon announced the wave was overtaking the ship and said her goodbyes. I thought of you, your sweet smile and those beautiful blue eyes. My last words were, ‘I love you Sara Lance’ as the wave washed over my body and then that was it. I was gone. It was a weird feeling. Just a void of nothingness”. Ava got a little lost in her emotions recounted it all and failed to notice the way Sara had held her tighter. She latched on like her life depended on it.

Ava continued, “Then suddenly I was back. It felt almost like nothing had even happened. Everything was back to normal, or so it seemed. You came home, looking exhausted and upset and I was oblivious to it all. Not remembering anything until J’onn came by to return the team's memories. Well you know, you were there. Look, I guess my point is that I can relate, kind of. At least maybe a little. I know it had to have been much worse for you. You had to watch world after world die with no idea if you could even stop it. You saw our home die, our friends die, me die. And then there’s Oliver. I know that in the past I’ve been a little touchy on the subject of him but I also know that he meant a lot to you. And your other friends, yeah they’re grieving him too, but they didn’t know him like you did. You had the whole fate of the multiverse resting on your shoulders Sara. And you saved us all. I can’t even begin to imagine what that must feel like”.

A barely audible, “I’m sorry”, was muttered against Ava’s skin. “I’m sorry I left you alone like that. I’m sorry I didn’t loop you in and that I wasn’t there for you”.

“Sara, you don’t have to apologize. You were literally saving everyone on earth”

Sara cut her off, “No I do. You literally died and I didn’t even acknowledge it. I left you in the dark. Barry went back for Iris. Hell, Kara even went back for Lena who literally hated her and I couldn’t even be bothered to send you a text. I was so absorbed in trying to complete the mission and Oliver’s death that I left you alone and I’m so sorry for that”. Sara was trying to hold it together but Ava could feel her shaking and a few hot tears pool on her chest.

“Aves, I’m sorry. I’ve been distant and distracted. And yes crisis was fucking awful but I’m starting to come to terms with it. I just wish I could talk to Oli one last time. A lot of bad shit has happened to me in my life but losing Oli takes the cake. He was the only person that understood everything. He lived through it with me. He was like my brother. With him gone it’s like a chapter of my life is closed and there is nobody else that knows what life was like for us. In our line of work I always knew this was possible. I guess I just always thought I’d be the first one to go”, her voice shaky and full of emotion.

“But that isn’t what I was thinking about. Oli, he saved us all. He created this amazing new world and brought so many people back to life. He brought my dad back, something I am forever grateful for. But what I don’t understand is why not Laurel. Our Laurel, my sister and the woman he was in love with. She was such a big part of his life, why isn’t she here. I have to live every single day knowing I could be selfish and go back in time. I could save Laurel and have her with me again at the expense of everyone else. But I don’t, because I know I can’t do that to everyone. But Oli, he had the chance to bring her back without any consequences, yet she isn’t here. I know everyone else says it’s because of Black Siren. That she took Laurel’s place but I just can’t believe that. Oliver and my Dad may have become close with her. Maybe they even fooled themselves into thinking she was Laur and maybe I’m the only one who can’t accept her. But she is not our Laurel.”

“I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers and I’m sorry she isn’t here. I know how much she meant to you. I really wish I could have met her.”

“Ya know when we got back and I saw my Dad I thought I was going crazy. I thought maybe I had died and he was just there waiting to welcome me to the afterlife. But I wasn’t dead and neither was he. I thought to myself, ‘if Dad’s back, Laurel must be too’. And so I looked around and she was nowhere in sight. I asked him where she was, and his face Ava, all the color ran out of it. I knew right then that Laurel didn’t come back. It was like losing her all over again. I know it’s my fault, I got my hopes up for no good reason, but fuck, I just miss my sister”.

Sara’s voice was hoarse and her eyes raw with emotion. She was exhausted both physically and mentally and had gone through more in a week than anyone should have to in a lifetime. Ava didn’t know what to say, there was nothing she could say really. So she just pulled the blanket up over their heads.

“What are you doing?”

“Hiding us from the world and all our responsibilities.”

“Wow, you of all people? Ava Sharpe, I never thought I’d hear those words out of your mouth.”, Sara broke out into a grin.

“Just this once for you. Don’t tell anyone, they’ll think I’m weak”, Ava replied, happy to see a smile on her girlfriend's face again.

“Thank you for this and for being you. I love you”

“I love you most Sara Lance”

Just then, Sara’s phone rings and a picture of Gideon’s AI face pops up. “Pardon the interruption captain, but it seems we have a bit of a situation.”

Both women sigh loudly and throw off the blanket.

“Come on Gideon, give me a fucking break. Don’t you know I just saved the world? Can’t Supergirl or Flash take this one?”

“I’m sorry Captain Lance but I’m afraid this one cannot wait”.

  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sara and Ava reluctantly pull themselves from each other's arms and out of the bed. Sara slips into her silk robe and glances over at Ava with seductive eyes, “Shower with me?”.

Ava bites her lip and looks Sara up and down. “Is that an order Captain?”, she jests as she heads towards the bathroom not bothering to get dressed and swaying her hips more than necessary.

“Oh you will most certainly be the death of me Ava Sharpe”, Sara whispers to herself as she trails Ava into the bathroom, eyes never leaving her toned ass.

Ava slips under the water, enjoying the heat on her skin and content from the moment she had with her girlfriend earlier. Hopefully things would go back to normal now that they had talked. Sara had been under a lot of pressure and now Ava vowed to make it her priority to take that stress away and keep a smile on Sara’s face.

Ava poked her head out from the shower curtain, “Hey babe can you grab me a…WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING TO YOU?”

Sara’s body was intermittently transparent and ghostly white. She seemed oblivious to what was going on.

“Well that’s not the reaction I normally get when I take off my clothes”, Sara replied with a quizzical look on her face. She looked down at herself and realized what was going on. After all, she had seen it happen to Ray once. Something was happening in her past that was going to wipe her from existence in the present.

“Oh well fuck me”.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A portal opened up on the bridge of the Waverider from which Sara and Ava came rushing out. Sara’s form had returned to normal, at least for the time being and she seemed calm. Ava on the other hand was in full-blown panic mode.

“Gideon, what's the situation?”  
“Well Miss Sharpe, it appears that in this timeline, during Miss Lance’s time with the League of Assassins she was collateral damage in a failed arranged marriage for Miss al Ghul.”

“What the hell does Sara have to do with some marriage Gideon. Hurry please, I’d like to fix this before my girlfriend turns into a ghost again”, Ava replied hurriedly, fed up with Gideon’s antics. Sara was holding her forehead feeling a headache coming on thinking about this upcoming mission.

“I think I’d rather just disappear”, she muttered quietly to herself. She was met with a glare from Ava who was growing frustrated by the minute.

“It appears Ra’s al Ghul had arranged a marriage for his daughter Nyssa for a peace treaty between another group. At the time Miss al Ghul was in a relationship with Miss Lance and had been for the past year. Miss al Ghul was not happy with the arrangement and refused the marriage. Unwilling to take no for an answer, Ra’s commanded Miss Lance to separate from his daughter. Miss Lance disobeyed his orders and as a result he ordered the assassination of Miss Lance and succeeded.”

“I will never stop being punished from getting on that fucking boat. Aves, you might want to sit this one out. Gideon, fabricate me some league appeal please. I’ll just go in there, kidnap myself and then convince Nyssa that we shouldn’t be together. Easy peasy”.

“Sara why would I want to be on the sidelines for this? I can’t risk something going wrong and losing you”, Ava replied with a tinge of hurt in her voice.

“Well I know how you tend to get jealous sometimes and I know this was my past but Nyssa can be...well…she can be a lot. Plus you don’t know how the league operates. They’d notice you immediately”, Sara tried to do a little damage control.

“I don’t care about Nyssa. She was your past but you picked me. I just want to make sure you’re safe. And I was thinking maybe I could go and learn some about your past. You were saying early how with Oliver gone, you didn’t have anyone else who understands everything. Well, maybe I could see how it was and provide even the slightest bit of comfort for you.”

Sara got a cheesy grin on her face. Ava was truly the sweetest. In all honesty she just cared about Sara’s well being and was making a real effort to try and be there for Sara.

“Okay fine, you can stay on the ship and quarterback for me. I promise I’ll make it quick and easy and as soon as we’re done we can do whatever you want for the rest of the week. Deal?” Sara moved over to wrap her hands around Ava’s waist and gave her a sweet smile.

Ava did a little happy dance. “Deal, I love you” She leaned in to Sara for a chaste kiss.

“I love you too”, Sara whispered through a smile against Ava’s lips.

  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Gideon plot a course for Nanda Parbat 2008”, Sara asked Gideon. She was honestly a little worried about this mission. Although the timeline in this new world was a little different, being back with the League would still bring back memories. Plus it would open a fresh wound regarding the death of Oliver. Either way it had to be fixed or she would cease to exist.

“Are you sure you don’t want to wake up the team for this?”, Ava asked as Sara strapped on the black leather garb of the League.

“Yeah, they need their rest. Plus don’t tell them I said this but I think they would actually just make this situation worse”, Sara joked. She looked over her old League sword and checked the blade before flipping it and sliding it behind her back.

Ava laughed, “I suppose you’re right. You guys do have a habit of messing things up.”

Gideon nestled the ship into a crevice not too far off from the League base of operations and cloaked it.

“Okay, I’m going to head off. And Aves baby, please don’t hold me accountable for past me’s actions. The Sara I left behind here is much different from the way I am now. I was lost and for the most part alone. Nyssa was all I had back then. And while I didn’t live through this exact timeline, I do know how I felt about her. Just remember, anything I say or do is just for the mission, okay?”

“Yeah yeah I got it. Don’t go all crazy jealous girlfriend on you. It's just a mission, you gotta do what you gotta do. Just be careful please. I don’t like you going in there by yourself but I understand for the sake of this mission it’s probably best. Plus, I’ll be on comms the whole time in case you need anything.”

Ava had a concerned look on her face. It went against all her time bureau rules and better judgement to let Sara go in there by herself. But on the other hand Sara is highly capable and lived with the League for five years. If anyone could pull this off it would be Sara. Sara walked over to Ava and cupped her face in her hands before planting a sweet slow kiss on her lips.

“Promise me you’ll be careful?”

“I promise. After all, I do have a beautiful girl to come home to.”, Sara added with a wink.

“I love you.”

“I love you most.”


	2. Nanda Parbat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara goes to Nanda Parbat but like a typical Legends mission, not everything goes as planned.

Sara has navigated through the dusty valleys of Nanda Parbat for almost an hour before finally reaching the League’s lair. She flipped up the heavy black hood and pulled her scarf up over her face. Since she didn’t know where her past self was at the moment, she figured it would be best to remain just another anonymous League assassin. With her identity concealed she walked into the base oozing confidence. She knew nobody would stop and question her as long as it looked like she was on a mission. The guards in the hallway nodded their heads to her as she walked by, a silent way of respect from one assassin to another. Her brain went into autopilot and before she knew it she was back in her old room. Being in this space again brought back a flood of memories, most of which were unhappy. During her time with the League she was in a bad place. She went from being a bratty little party girl to one of the most highly trained assassins in the multiverse. She had to stay with the organization and make her family believe she was dead. At the time she was haunted by what Laurel must have thought of her. Laurel surely had to have hated her guts for stealing her boyfriend and then going off and dying along with him. Sara had convinced herself that for the sake of Laurel it was probably better if she stayed “dead”. This left her to wander the halls of the League day in and day out mindlessly. Like a robot just doing what it was programmed to. The only good thing about the situation was Nyssa. Nyssa had found her and saved her life. She hadn’t treated her like just another League goon. She looked after and cared for her. And after awhile they had fallen in love. It was real for Sara at first. Nyssa was beautiful, talented, had a sexy accent, and always concerned about Sara’s well being. The only thing she didn’t know then is that when Nyssa fell in love, she fell in love for life. Even now, after years of virtually no contact, Nyssa had yet to move on. She demonstrated that at Oliver’s funeral when she introduced Sara to her sister as her beloved. Thank god Ava wasn’t there for that, she probably would have started a fight at the funeral. Sara was so caught up in her memories that she didn’t notice when someone entered the room silently behind her. 

“What’s bothering you, my love”, that familiar smooth English accent laced with care and worry cut through the silence.

Sara froze at the sound of her voice and turned around slowly. Since she hadn’t found her past self yet and she couldn’t risk herself walking in and jeopardizing the mission, she would just have to play along for now.

“Nyssa...hey, I think I’m just feeling a little nostalgic right now”, Sara flashed her a small reassuring smile.

Nyssa crossed the room seductively and ran her hand along Sara’s thigh up her body and to her neck. Eyes filled with lust, “Well my love, I know a way I could help take your mind off things. I recall it worked pretty well last night.”

Sara heard Ava growl in annoyance over comms. Maybe it was a poor decision to let Ava QB this one. 

“As nice as that sounds, I can’t right now. Your father requested an audience with me, I was about to head there now”, Sara deflected and backed off from Nyssa earning a quizzical look for just a moment.

“Of course Ra’s wishes to speak with you”, Nyssa let out a sigh, “regardless, I will accompany you to see him”.

“No no, it’s fine really. You wait here and when I get back you can try to ‘distract’ me again”. 

Another huff of annoyance came through the comms. Ava was going to give her shit for this for the rest of the week. Oh well, the more she could avoid Nyssa, the less damage control she’d have to do with Ava later. 

“If that is your wish then I shall be here waiting, my love”, Nyssa replied looking a bit hurt.

Sara knew she was behaving strangely with Nyssa but she was trying to be respectful of Ava. But Ava, no matter how jealous she got, would understand what she had to do to keep her cover. Sara cupped Nyssa’s cheek in her hands and placed a gentle kiss to her forehead. 

“Thank you, for being here for me and caring for me. I’ll be back soon okay?”

“I’d do anything for my beloved. Hurry back to me.”

Sara left the room, putting her hood and mask back on as soon as she was out of Nyssa’s sight. With Nyssa out of the way for now, she was free to look for her past self. She prowled the hallways looking for any sign of her troublesome self. Being back in these halls now felt wrong to her now. It was crazy to think how much her life had changed. She was happy now, really happy. She had her family back, well almost all of them. She was the captain of a flying time ship and led a crew of her best friends. But most of all, she had Ava. Ava was her world and her happiness. Sure they had their bad moments but they got through them and they were perfect now. Sara had actually been hoping that maybe her and Ava could be the next super wedding. She just hadn’t gotten around to asking the question yet but maybe after things settled down she would get her shot.

“Ta er al Sahfer, I surely hope my daughter hasn’t convinced you to avoid me”, a commanding voice called from down the hall.

Sara whipped around, and kneeled to Ra’s pulling her hood off, revealing her blonde locks to the chamber. 

“I was on my way to find you, but it seems you have found me first.” 

This could complicate things. It was not part of the plan to be spotted by Ra’s. When she had told Nyssa she needed to meet with her father earlier it had been what she thought was a lie. Now knowing that Ra’s did in fact request to see her, it was only a matter of time before the past Sara showed up and created a scene. She would have to try and end this meeting as quickly as possible then go back to searching for her past self.

“Come, we have private matters to discuss”, he commanded.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I understand my daughter cares deeply for you”, Ra’s looked as if he was staring through Sara’s soul.

“I care for her as well, she is very important to me.”

Ra’s sighed, “Unfortunately I can not allow this to continue. I have plans for my daughter and while I respect you and your abilities Ta er al Sahfer, I need Nyssa to be married off to another.”

Sara feigned shock, “We can be discreet, I swear not to interfere with your arrangement. I fear Nyssa will not take this decision so well”.

“I know all too well how my daughter feels about the situation. That is why I have come to you. Do not be mistaken, this topic is not up for debate. I am commanding you to end this affair with Nyssa or I will be forced to take less pleasant measures against you. This will be the only opportunity I will give you”, he added voice stern and laced with annoyance. 

“As you wish”, Sara bowed and turned to leave. So far so good. 

As she was walking out the door, a hooded figure swept her legs out from underneath her and pressed their blade hard against her throat, sending a drop of crimson red down her neck.

“Who are you”, the figure demanded.

The figure was swarmed with guards, swords drawn and ready. Ra’s had stood and commanded in his booming voice, “what is the meaning of this”.

The hooded assassin pressed their boot into Sara’s chest. 

“I said who are you.”

“Ta er al Sahfer”, Sara growled. The blade cut her neck more as she spoke.

“Lies, you are an impostor!”, the owner of the voice pressed the blade harder against her neck.

Sara could faintly hear Ava frantically demanding to know what the hell was going on over comms. Knowing Ava, she was about to portal in guns a blazing if Sara didn’t say something. 

“I don’t know what you are talking about, you are mistaken.”

“Do not tell me what I am”, the person snarled.

The figure ripped off her hood revealing blonde hair and blue eyes. Gasps and quiet mutterings of confusion were heard from nearly everyone in the room. Ra’s always stoic face was twisted in bewilderment.

Past Sara landed a kick to Sara’s ribs, “I will ask one last time. Who are you?”

Before Sara could try and flip the situation around, Ra’s demanded the two of them be locked away until he could think the situation over. He had his goons knock both Saras out and carry them away.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The cell was the same as when she had been revived from the lazarus pit. Thick metal bars which her hands and legs were chained to. It was dark and dusty with only the flicker of a few torches bringing light into the room. Across the cave she saw her past self in the same situation as her. Although past Sara was still sleeping it off, she must not have been used to all the heavy hits yet. Sara wasn’t sure if her comms were still in but hopefully the goons who knocked her out hadn’t seen the tiny earpiece.

“Aves, can you hear me?”

“Oh thank god Sara you’re alive! I was so worried that something really bad happened and I didn’t know what to do. I called the team in and we were coming up with a plan to come extract you. Are you okay?”. Ava spoke a little too quickly for Sara’s groggy mind. 

“I’m alright, they just knocked me out for a bit. Although past me really packs a punch, I think she may have broken a rib”, Sara laughed.

“Don’t worry Captain, we will come get you right out of there and have Gideon fix you right up in no time!”, Ray exclaimed in his constantly chipper voice.

“No guys I can handle this, plus if you guys try and come in here you’ll be so obvious.”

“That sounds jolly fine with me Cap, Mick and I will hit the bars and try to stay out of trouble”. Charlie was content to slack off and leave the work to Sara.

Ava protested, “Sara come on be reasonable, you’re in a tough situation. Just let me come get you out and we can restart this.”

“Ava no, I mean it. I’m not going to put you in risk and I’m the only one who knows what to do with this.” Sara’s voice was serious, she was not willing to bring the team in for this.

Past Sara began to wake up and when she spotted Sara her eyes filled with rage. She pulled on the chains and let out a low growl.

“Who the hell are you and why do you have my face?”, she demanded.

  
  


“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today huh?”

“Real funny”, she scowled, “What is your business here, what were you talking to Ra’s about?”

“Let me make this short. I’m you, a much happier version albeit, from the future. So for your own good, could you just play along and stay out of my way? Pretend I’m like your identical sister or something.”

“And why should I believe you?”

“Well other than the fact that I look exactly like you, well with a little better of a body”, Sara added snarkily, “Let see, you were born on December 25, 1987 to Quentin and Dinah Lance. You have a birthmark on your right arm. Oh, and you got in this mess when you decided to go on a boat trip with your sister's boyfriend.”

“Don’t remind me of that. I don’t really trust you and if you really are future me then you will understand why. Regardless, if we don’t do something Ra’s will just have us both killed so I’m going to have to put up with you for now.”

“Really, wow I didn’t expect it to be that easy. I remember myself being angstier than that. Whatever, let me fill you in. Ra’s has set up an arranged marriage for Nyssa and needs you out of the way. If you want to live you’ll end things with her.”

“What no, absolutely not. I love her and she would not allow that to happen. She is all I have here, you can’t take her away from me.”, past Sara exclaimed trying to assert some power but her voice was laced with desperation. 

“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice. I set up a somewhat awkward encounter with Nyssa earlier so you shouldn't have that hard of a time believing your breakup.”

“You did what! No, I’m not leaving her, she saved me and I owe my life to her. We will figure something else out. We can run away together.”

“Please just make this easy on me. Under no circumstances can you stay with Nyssa just trust me it won't work out. I can’t tell you much more than that but seriously...shit someones coming. Behave.” 

Both Sara’s tensed as the door opened and bowed their heads as they saw Ra’s enter the cell with his entourage of hooded assassins. He observed both of them with an unreadable explanation on his face.

“Ta er al Sahfer, explain what is going on at once. Who is this lookalike of yours?”

Sara wanted to set the scene before her past self said something incriminating. “Sorry about earlier, pretending to be Sara and all. I’m her twin sister. I came for a visit and panicked when you thought I was her in the hallway.”

Just then the cell door flew open and Nyssa came striding in with a voice filled with rage. 

“Father, what is the meaning of this? Why have you locked up my beloved….”

It was then that Nyssa noticed not one, but two women with the face of her lover. She was deeply confused and unsure of which one was the real Sara. 

“What….what is going on here?”, she asked unsure of herself. 

Ra’s watched the scene unfold silently taking in every detail with a blank look on his face.

Past Sara looked at Nyssa and pleaded with her, “Nyssa, it’s me. I’m the real Sara. I’m your Sara. Don’t listen to anything this impostor says. She is just here to ruin us. You know earlier when I was acting strangely and cold with you. That was her, not me. I would never treat you like that. You mean everything to me. Please believe me.” She fell forward on her chains trying to close the distance between herself and Nyssa. 

Sara scowled. Of course her past self couldn’t be trusted. It was understandable though. If someone had tried to take Nyssa away from her at that point in her life she knows she would have fought like hell to stop it. Sara tried to tap into the emotions of that time in her life. “Don't believe anything she says. She is lying to you. It’s me, she was the one who you saw earlier not me. I would never do anything to hurt you. You have my heart and…”

“LIAR, STOP FUCKING LYING TO HER LIKE THAT. QUIT FUCKING TRYING TO RUIN MY LIFE.” Past Sara yanked hard against her chains leaving marks around her wrists as they pulled her back. Her face was red and if looks could kill Sara would be dead a thousand times over.

Nyssa was confused. Extremely confused. She had no clue which one was her Sara and she looked like she was about to cry. 

“Nyssa, can you confidently say which one your beloved?”, her father asked in a stone cold voice.

She sounded defeated, “No.”

Ra’s sighed and looked at both Sara’s before giving his daughter a sort of sad smile. 

“Well, this situation is quite unfortunate. Since we have no way of ever truly knowing which one is the correct Ta er al Sahfer, and their existence jeopardizes the security of the League. I’m afraid we will have to have them both executed. I really do apologize Nyssa. Surely you will understand this is in the League’s best interest. Say your goodbyes.”

Nyssa was distraught. She couldn’t allow this to happen. She would find which one is hers and save her. She couldn’t bear to live without her beloved. “NO, absolutely not. You will do no such thing. If you make a move on either of them I will execute you myself.” She paced towards him never breaking eye contact until they were nearly touching foreheads. 

“I figured you would react this way. Guards, restrain her please. Take her outside, she doesn’t need to see this.”

“Sara”, Ava’s voice was desperate through the earpiece, “You need to figure out something quick please. I need you to get out of there. I can’t lose you, I need you to come home to me.”

Sara sighed, of course it turned out this way. She was going to die, again. What was supposed to be a simple mission went to shit so quickly. It was hard, there was no surveillance to tap into in the League base so it meant going in blind. All she could do is hope that when she was gone, Ava would figure something out. After all she was smart and highly capable, and beautiful, and the love of her life, and everything she ever dreamed of. Sara got lost in thoughts of Ava as Nyssa was dragged out of the room kicking and screaming. She had managed to defeat a few of the goons who lay knocked out on the floor but she was no match for that many. A guard drew close with a needle containing the League’s designated poison of choice and waited of Ra’s command. 

Ra’s gave both Sara’s an endearing look, “I’m sorry it had to end this way. You truly were one of the most talented assassins that has ever walked these halls. Alas, this event does benefit my current problem regarding Nyssa’s relationship status. Additionally you both know I could never let you be free, as it would compromise the League. Thank you for your service. Ta er al Sahfer, I release you.”

Sara felt the prick of the needle in her neck and the poison coursing hotly through her veins.

“I love you, thank you for the happiness you have brought me. I will always love you Ava Sharpe.”

The guard looked at her like she was crazy but assumed maybe the poison was giving her some sort of a hallucination. Sara’s breathing got hoarse and her vision started to blur. A single tear fell from her eye as she heard Ava yelling through her comms. 

“Sara, no don’t you dare give up on me. Come on stay with me please. I’ll be there in a minute, just stay awake.” 

Ava was met with silence.

“Sara, no. Please. Please say something baby please. Let me know you’re still there. I need to know you are okay. Sara, what's happening.” 

Tears ran down Ava's cheeks as she stared at the monitor in disbelief. Sara couldn’t be gone. Maybe the connection had just been blocked out, after all the service wasn’t very good deep in the League caves. The rest of the team was in shock from what they just heard. Ray came up to Ava and put his hand on her shoulder, directing her away from the monitor. Normally emotionless Mick even had some tears forming in his eyes. 

“Miss Sharpe, I regret to inform you that Captain Lance has been pronounced dead in Nanda Parbat 2008 according to League records. I am truly sorry for your loss”, Gideon piped through the ship's speakers. Despite being an AI, her normally cheerful voice was laden with sadness.

Ava pushed Rays hand off and stormed off towards Sara’s quarters, “I need to think.” She tried to hold it together until she made it to Sara’s room but failed drastically. By the time she reached her bed she was a mess. Face red from trying to hold back tears, she collapsed in the bed, “I thought you said this was going to be easy”, she whispered to no one in particular. She cried herself to sleep replaying Sara’s last words over and over again in her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week is spring break so I should be able to crank out a few more chapters then. As always, suggestions and comments are much appreciated.


	3. Heir to the Demon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava and Nyssa reluctantly work together to get Sara back. 
> 
> Important little bit of background here:  
> 1\. I'm still not sure how I feel about Zari 2.0 so for the purposes of this fic it's just going to be the normal Zari we all know and love.  
> 2\. In this chapter we are going to follow the rules of time a bit loosely for the sake of my sanity because I keep coming up with ideas that have so many plot holes in them regarding time travel. So here's a quick little summary in case there is any confusion. Basically Ava is given a day to try and fix the situation with Sara before time cements. Therefor, everyone still has the normal memories of Sara. Sara is only removed from the timeline before it cements because she is the epicenter of the anachronism.

_ Wish I could, I could’ve said goodbye _

_ I would’ve said what I wanted to _

_ Maybe even cried for you _

  
  


Ava woke up startled by the sound of music with a raging headache from crying. As she listened to the lyrics, they started bringing up more emotion and she felt that uncomfortable lump in her throat emerge and her eyes get watery.

  
  


_ If I knew it would be the last time _

_ I would’ve broke my heart in two _

_ Tryin’ to save a part of you _

  
  


“Gideon what the fuck, are you just trying to make me feel miserable?”Ava choked out in a raspy voice. She tried to act angry but instead just sounded defeated.

  
  


_ Don’t wanna feel another touch _

_ Don’t wanna start another fire _

_ Don’t wanna know another kiss _

_ No other name falling off my lips _

  
  


“Well Miss Sharpe, I thought it was best to wake you using Miss Lance’s personal playlist. I think it is best that you develop a plan to save Miss Lance before time cements. By my calculations you have approximately 14 more hours.”

_ Won’t even let the sunlight in _

_ No, I’ll never love again _

_ I’ll never love again _

  
  


“Gideon would you please turn off that song.” Ava sighed, falling back onto the bed. She had to come up with some sort of idea of how to bring Sara back and quick. This was no time to grieve, she couldn’t give up on Sara yet, not when there was still a chance at fixing this.

  
  


Gideon being the cheeky bot she was didn’t stop the music but skipped to the next song. 

_ Lonely, I’m Mr. Lonely _

_ I have nobody for my own _

_ Oh, I’m so lonely _

  
  


“Gideon is this some kind of joke?”, Ava huffed with annoyance due to the song choice. 

  
  


“Whenever Captain Lance was distressed, she used this playlist to calm down. She requested that I do the same for you if something went wrong during the mission.”

  
  


Ava broke into a sad smile, of course Sara even tried to cheer her up from the dead. “It’s like you’re haunting me from the grave with these songs, Lance”, she whispered to herself. 

  
  


“Did Sara leave you any other instructions?”

  
  


“Yes in fact, Captain Lance anticipated this might happen and created a contingency plan. She was adamant in making sure neither your or the team entered the League base of operations. Her exact words were ‘it would be a miracle if they made it past the front door security’. She instead suggested for you to contact Nyssa al Ghul for assistance.”

  
  


“What! No, absolutely not we can do this without her help. I’ll just gather the team and we will stop the initial assassination of Sara and then take her away from the League”, Ava felt a little jealousy flare up at the idea of Nyssa being the one the save Sara. HER Sara.

  
  


“Captain Lance figured you might say that. Without Miss al Ghul’s help I calculate only a 8% success rate of saving Captain Lance and restoring the timeline.”

  
  


Ava frowned, this wasn’t going to be easy. Although she doesn’t know much about this Nyssa girl, what she does know she didn’t like. Sara said she is very ‘difficult’ to work with and tended to do things her way. This was insane, she was going to have to work with Sara’s clingy ex-girlfriend. The same woman who poisoned Sara’s sister and kidnapped her mother in an attempt to force Sara to return to the League with her.

  
  


Ava got out of the bed and threw on one of Sara’s old Star City Rockets hoodies and tried to make herself look presentable. She told herself she was only wearing Sara’s hoodie to feel closer to her and it totally had absolutely nothing to do with making Nyssa jealous. Totally. 

  
  


“Gideon, what is the last known location of Nyssa al Ghul?”, she put her hair up in her traditional ‘I’m not messing around bun’ and strode out into the hallways of the ship.

  
  


“Miss al Ghul was last seen in Star City 2020 three days after the funeral of Mr. Queen.”

  
  


She was pushing her feelings down and in full blown mission mode. The rest of the team was waiting in the Captain’s Quarters and all stared at her as soon as she entered the room.

  
  


Ray was the first to break the silence, “Hey Ava, how are you feeling? You have a plan to fix this right? We are all ready to go get Sara back, anything you need.”

  
  


“Well evidently there nothing that WE can do.”

  
  


The team picked up on her annoyance and shared a quizzical glance. Ava was punching in keys angrily on the monitor.

  
  


“Are you trying to say that Sara can’t be saved? That can’t be right, I’m sure I can find some sort of loophole with my program”, Zari added, chalking Ava’s annoyance up to Sara’s demise.

  
  


“Apparently, according to Gideon the only person in this whole universe who can bring Sara back is Nyssa al Ghul.” 

  
  


John pulled out a cigarette and flicked his lighter open, “Her fate lies in the hands of the Heir to the Demon, well our poor little Sara is doomed it seems. Nyssa al Ghul can be a real piece of work.”

  
  


Zari gave John a disapproving look and Charlie smacked him upside the back of the head. “AYE OW, what the fuck was that for.”

  
  


“Knock it off you wanker, you aren’t helping the situation”, Charlie whispered hoping Ava didn’t hear their little altercation. 

  
  


Ray piped up in his cheerful voice, “Well the good news is that you shouldn’t have much trouble convincing Nyssa to help. She was really in love with Sara in fact she still is….” Nora put her hand over his mouth and finished the sentence for him. “Still is going to want Sara to be alive and kicking! Isn’t that right Ray?”

  
  


Nora leaned over to Ray’s ear, “Shut up, can’t you see Ava is already annoyed and jealous about this situation with Nyssa.”

  
  


Ava’s frustration grew due to the team's antics. She was usually joking when she called the Legends a band of idiots but right now she was really starting to believe it. “Everybody strap in, we are headed to Star City 2020, Gideon lets go.” 

  
  


\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  


It was a dull and dreary day and Ava was trailing Nyssa down the streets of Star City looking for a good opportunity to approach her. She decided to go alone because Nyssa wouldn’t know who she was and would more than likely run if she saw a whole group of people stalking her. Nyssa suddenly turned and began walking down an alleyway. Ava waited a bit and followed her through. When she got about halfway through she was grabbed from behind and pushed hard face first into a brick wall. A dagger was pressed firmly against her throat.

  
  


“Who are you and why are you following me?”, a thick English accent demanded.

  
  


Ava was a bit surprised over the sudden attack and heavily annoyed that she had been bested by this woman.

  
  


“Maybe if you let me off of this wall we could have a civil conversation”, Ava snarked back completely fed up with the day and not caring if the knife cut her.

  
  


“Ooh, a feisty one. You better watch your tone”, Nyssa snapped back while pulling the knife away and pushing herself back off of Ava. 

  
  


Ava glared at Nyssa with fire in her eyes. “They warned me you’d be like this”, Ava muttered to herself.

  
  


“Who is they and once again who are you?”, Nyssa narrowed her eyes at Ava and pointed the knife in her direction.

  
  


Ava sighed, better get this over with. “My name is Ava Sharpe, you don’t know me but I need your help. There’s been an incident regarding Sara Lance and for some reason you are the sole person who can save her.”

  
  


Something flashed in Nyssa’s eyes and her face was covered with worry. “What has happened to Sara? Where is she? Is she okay?”

  
  


Ava tensed slightly at the amount of concern Nyssa was showing for Sara. Everyone was right when they said Nyssa never got over her. It was slightly reassuring to know Nyssa would be willing to help but she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy. “Sara…”, Ava choked up a bit, “Sara went on a mission to save her past self from dying during her time with you at the League. There was an incident and she was spotted, your father had her executed. The reason you don’t remember this is because time hasn’t cemented yet and this anachronism was caused by the crisis. We don’t have a lot of time left.”

  
  


Nyssa was visibly shocked, “You need me to infiltrate the league and use my status as Heir to the Demon to extract Sara. Someone with your experience in stalking would never be able to get inside. I will help you. I would do anything to bring my beloved back.”

  
  


Ava bristled at hearing Nyssa call Sara her beloved, Sara was hers not Nyssa’s. “Oh I forgot to add that Sara is MY girlfriend. Just thought you should know.”

  
  


“I had heard my beloved had moved on with someone else. So she picked you...interesting”, Nyssa scoffed and diverted her attention elsewhere.

  
  


“What’s that supposed to... You know what, no. We don’t have time for this. I don’t like you and you don’t like me but lets just set our differences aside for Sara’s sake. Please.”

  
  


“You’re the one trying to assert your dominance, don’t think I didn’t notice Sara’s perfume on that hoodie you’re wearing. I’m simply trying to help you save Sara. Regardless, you are right. If we are to get Sara back we can’t be at each other's throats”, Nyssa replied cockily.

  
  


Ava’s face was red and she let out a low growl, “Whatever, let's just get this over with”.

  
  


She opened a portal back to the waverider on her time courier and the pair walked through. When they arrived on the bridge they were greeted by the team who all caught on to the hostile environment between the two except for Ray who was completely oblivious.

  
  


“Ava, you’re back! And you got Nyssa to help you, excellent! Hi Nyssa, how are you? Long time no see.” 

  
  


Nyssa was still quite annoyed from her encounter with Ava and ignored Ray whose bright smile quickly faded into confusion and maybe even a little bit of hurt. Her mind was solely occupied with the goal of bringing Sara back.

  
  


Zari along with most of the team was heavily uncomfortable by the tension, “Well, I’m going to go mess with some algorithms or something, Ava let me know if you need anything.” Zari looked at the rest of the team and gestured for them to also leave the two alone. 

  
  


“Oi Micky, come on let's get out of here”, Charlie added.

  
  


“No way, this is better than television. My money’s on pantsuit”, he grumbled, eyes locked on Ava and Nyssa.

  
  


Charlie dragged Mick up by that jacket, “Okay buddy, I got a case of beer and a table full of food with your name on it.”

  
  


“You had me at beer.”

  
  


Mick and Charlie headed to the kitchen leaving Ava and Nyssa alone on the bridge. Ava was bringing up information about the mission on the monitors. 

  
  


“What’s the situation pantsuit?”, Nyssa asked.

  
  


“Do NOT call me that”, Ava glared daggers at Nyssa. 

  
  


Nyssa smiled at the reaction she drew out of Ava. She found it quite fun to irritate her. She would thoroughly enjoy playing with her during the mission.

  
  


“Short version, the past changed and instead of Sara abandoning you in Nanda Parbat she is assassinated before she gets the chance. Your father arranged a marriage for you and your relationship with Sara is in his way. You and Sara both refused to separate like he demanded and as a result he had Sara killed. So the plan is we will go in together, find Sara where you will then break up with her and convince her to leave. That should set the timeline back to normal and bring Sara back.”

“We?”, Nyssa asked, “You don’t stand a chance in there, you’ll be spotted immediately.”

  
  


“Oh no”, Ava laughed, “There is no way I’m letting you go in there by yourself. You have a chance to change Sara’s future and make it into one where she ends up with you and I will NOT allow that to happen.”

  
  


“Hmmm someone’s insecure. You think she’d choose me over you don’t you?”

  
  


“That’s not what I said. There’s no way Sara could ever settle down with someone like you”, Ava spat out.

  
  


“Don’t be so sure of yourself. Sara and I have history. I saved her and cared for her for years. Based upon your skills earlier I’m the superior fighter and of course there's the matter of looks. Well, I’ll stop there. No need to be impolite”, Nyssa teased.

  
  


Ava had had it with this woman. She would take no more of her bullshit. She got right up in Nyssa’s face and shoved her back. “I have had enough of your attitude. Who do you think you are, honestly? I can’t believe Sara was ever in a relationship with you. If this is how you act no wonder she left you without saying anything. If I didn’t need you to save Sara then I swear to Beebo I would wipe you from history. You’re absolutely insufferable grow the fuck up.”

  
  


Nyssa seemed satisfied with Ava’s outburst. “There's the fire I was looking for. Believe it or not I actually quite like you. I have come to terms with the fact Sara and I are not meant to be but I can’t help but be jealous when you speak of her. I love Sara and I always will, nothing will change that. However, I am not so selfish as to keep Sara away from true happiness. As much as it may hurt me to go back to a time where we were together and know that I could restore us to what we once were, I will help you to return her to her real future. The one where she ends up with you. When I last saw her, she was truly happy and couldn’t stop talking about you. You make her happy in ways I never could and I would never dream of taking that away from her. I may act jealous but I ensure you I am and have always been looking out for Sara’s best interests. I apologize for my behavior but I needed to see for myself that you are worthy of her. As for the mission, I will try my best to get you inside with my authority but there is no promise that I can protect you if you get discovered. Now let’s go get Sara back.”

  
  


Ava was taken aback by Nyssa’s words. She felt assured that Nyssa would keep her promise and restore Sara’s life to normal. And to be honest, she understood where Nyssa was coming from. If the tables were turned she would probably act the same way. However, Nyssa had gotten her pretty riled up and she was still pissed regardless of the confession. 

  
  


“You are infuriating. But I appreciate you telling me that. Thank you. I’m sorry too. Sara and I have been through a lot too and if you couldn’t already tell I care for her deeply. I asked you to set aside your differences and then I attacked you. That was very unprofessional of me. I’m sorry, I’m very stressed right now and I just want Sara back here. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

  
  


“Truce?”

  
  


“Truce.”

  
  


“Let's get our ninja on!”, Ava joked, earning a laugh out of Nyssa.

  
  


“We are doomed.”

  
  


\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  
  


Ava and Nyssa stood a couple of miles just outside the league base. Nyssa was dressed in her signature black and red leather while Ava wore the traditional black studded league uniform. 

  
  


Ava pulled at her suit, “I’ll never understand how you guys move around in all this leather, it’s way too hot.”

  
  


“You get used to it. It’s more protective than cloth plus it looks amazing. Well you know, you’ve seen Sara in her suit”, Nyssa tested.

  
  


“Don’t push it”, Ava warned.

  
  


“Okay put on your hood and mask and keep them on the whole time we are in there. Don’t speak unless spoken to and follow my lead. Act as inconspicuously as you can. Nobody should question the way you hold yourself as long as you’re with me.”

  
  


“What’s wrong with the way I hold myself?” Ava scoffed, offended at what Nyssa had said.

  
  


“You are, how do I say this nicely, a bit stiff.”

  
  


“I am not stiff, I walk normally!”

  
  


“My point is that you don’t move like a member of the League of Assassins and more than likely someone is going to notice. Anyways, let's go get our girl back.”

  
  


“My girl”, Ava muttered under her breath. 

  
  


The pair crept their way to the League entrance where the guards immediately stepped aside after seeing who was entering. Ava nodded to the guards as Nyssa had done to try and keep suspicions down. As they walked down the hall guards kneeled to Nyssa or bowed their heads. It was becoming clear to Ava how much having the Heir to the Demon with her helped with this situation. Nyssa led them straight to Sara’s quarters.

  
  


“Okay stay out here for now and just act like you’re standing guard. I’ll try to make this quick and painless”, Nyssa instructed Ava.

  
  


Ava eavesdropped through the comms they were both wearing. 

  
  


“Hey there beautiful, back from your mission already?”, Sara asked Nyssa. Ava had to admit it hurt a little to hear Sara talk to someone else like that. 

  
  


“Yes my love, it was a simple one”, Nyssa crossed the room and hugged Sara then pulled her to sit beside her on the bed.

  
  


“Good. You know I always worry about you when you’re away. I mean I know you are probably the most skilled fighter in this place but I can’t help it.”

  
  


“Sara I need to talk to you about something serious. I don’t expect you to like it but I need you to understand and do what I ask.”

  
  


“What is it babe? Is something wrong?”

  
  


“Sara you know I love you very very much right? And that I can’t ever risk losing you?”

  
  


“Nyssa you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

  
  


“My father has arranged a marriage for me to benefit the welfare of the League. As much as I hate the idea and him for doing this to me I have to obey. Sara I have to let you go and you have to run. If I don’t do it he will kill you. I can’t allow him to do that. I love you more than anything in this world and this hurts me more than you’ll ever know, but it’s something I have to do. Please understand, I don’t want this.”

  
  


Sara was silent for a while lost in her thoughts. “If you don’t want it then don’t do it.”

  
  


“My love we both know it's not that simple. My father will always get his way. Please don’t make this harder than it already is for me.”

  
  


Sara turned to Nyssa and grabbed her hands. Her eyes were glassy with tears. “Nyssa you can’t leave me, I need you. You are all I have left, please. We can figure something out. We can run away together somewhere he’ll never find us. We can live in a shack in the middle of nowhere and grow old together. Don’t give up on me. Don’t let him win. I love you.”

  
  


Listening to their discussion was making Ava feel insecure. Sara and Nyssa had clearly been through so much together. Nyssa was obviously very important to Sara. Would Sara remember that one day and want her back? Ava shook her head, “Stop being stupid. This isn’t her anymore” she thought to herself.

  
  


“Sara, we both know you wouldn’t be happy living like that. This isn’t the life you want.”

  
  


Sara snapped back, “How do you know what I want? You obviously don’t care about me as much as I do for you.”

  
  


Nyssa winced at her words. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Sara was the love of her life and always will be. “Just trust me. I know it’s not what you want. I’m not what you want”, Nyssa said sadly.

  
  


“BUT YOU ARE WHAT I WANT! HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT? HOW CAN YOU JUST THROW AWAY EVERYTHING WE HAVE!”, Sara yelled, growing frustrated and deeply hurt with Nyssa.

  
  


Nyssa stood and faced the door so Sara didn’t see her tears. Despite knowing the outcome of her and Sara’s relationship it was still hard for Nyssa to do this. After all it was the opposite of what she feels inside. “Sara I love you and I am so grateful for the time we have spent together. But, I will not allow my father to execute you for loving me. This is the last time you will hear from me unless for a mission. I’m truly sorry it has to be this way. I think you should leave the League for both our sake and your safety. Ta er al Sahfer, I release you.”

“I’m not going anywhere and I’m not going to give up on you. Let your father kill me I don’t care. I don’t have anything if I don’t have you. I will wait here for you every day. I love you Nyssa al Ghul and I’ll be here waiting for you even if you never come back to me.”

  
  


Nyssa pushed open the door to leave and almost missed Sara whisper in a broken voice “Please don’t go.”

  
  


Nyssa walked out and past Ava without saying a word. She was pretty sure if she spoke her voice would crack and she didn’t want Ava to see her like that. That had hurt way more than when Sara had abandoned her without saying anything. Luckily Ava caught on that Nyssa was not in the mood to speak and stayed respectfully silent. Ava was shaken from the encounter as well. The whole thing was raw and she felt kind of guilty listening in on it. They walked in silence to a safe distance away from the base before Ava couriered them back to the waverider. 

  
  


\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“Thank you for doing that. I know that wasn’t easy for you”, Ava broke the silence.

  
  


“I did it for Sara. To give her the life she deserves.” Nyssa seemed out of it and was suddenly very interested in the floor.

  
  


“Gideon, please tell me we fixed this and Sara is back.”

  
  


“I’m sorry Miss Sharpe but I’m afraid Miss al Ghul’s efforts were for naught. Due to Captain Lance’s persistence of staying in the League of Assassins, Ra’s al Ghul had her executed as he believed her to be a distraction to his daughter.”

  
  


In that moment Ava felt true fear. She had been so confident this would work. Gideon had said there was a 92% success rate. What if this was it. What if she really couldn’t bring Sara back. A few feet away Nyssa was having a similar reaction. 

  
  


“Gideon what would be the success rate if we got Sara to leave the League?”, Ava asked, trying to keep calm. 

  
  


“By my calculations, there would be a 100% chance that Miss Lance would survive and the timeline would return to normal.”

  
  


Nyssa who had been silent this whole time finally spoke. “Laurel.”

  
  


Ava had a confused look on her face. “What about Laurel?”

  
  


“During our time together the one person Sara brought up constantly was Laurel. If we bring Laurel to Sara and ask her to go home with her there is no way she will deny her. She is our last hope of saving Sara.”

  
  


“Nyssa...we both know Laurel died a while ago. What are you suggesting?”

  
  


“I’m saying that we grab the Laurel from that time period and take her to Sara.”

  
  


Ava started to follow where Nyssa was going with this. “That’s so crazy it just might work. But how are we going to convince her to come with us. She has no idea who she is and she is under the assumption that her sister has been dead for years.”

  
  


“Sara and Laurel shared a bond like no other sisters I’ve ever seen before. All we will have to do is tell her Sara needs her help and she will follow us blindly. They would do anything for each other. If there is even the slightest chance Laurel could see her sister again she would take it. It’s just the kind of person she was.”

  
  


“Gideon plot a course for Star City 2008.”

“You always said you wanted me to meet Laurel. I’m really glad I’m finally getting the chance to. I can’t wait to tell you all about it when I bring you home safe”, Ava whispered to herself as she strapped herself into Sara’s pilot seat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bear with me on the grammar and such here. I stayed up til 4 writing this but I wanted to post it before I sleep so I might have missed some stuff in my editing.
> 
> Songs:  
> 1\. I'll Never Love Again - Lady Gaga  
> 2\. Lonely - Akon


	4. Enter Laurel.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava and Nyssa go to get Laurel and bring her up to speed.

Nyssa and Ava stood outside Laurel’s apartment building in the cool evening breeze. Nyssa in a long grey dress coat and Ava wearing her signature Time Bureau power suit. The pair were both exhausted from the day they've had and it showed on their faces. Nyssa seemed as calm as she could be given the situation because of her history with Laurel. Although Nyssa had not known Laurel until she was a few years older, she still knew what to expect. Ava on the other hand was a bundle of nerves. She had to cope with the stress of potentially losing Sara and on top of that meet Sara’s sister for the first time ever. The same sister Sara talked about endlessly and whose loss affected her daily.

Nyssa could pick up on Ava’s discomfort due to her constant fidgeting. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I know it’s stupid but I'm kind of nervous to meet her. This is my first time meeting anyone from Sara’s family. I never thought I’d have the opportunity to do this and I’m not really prepared. I know we will just memory flash her and she won’t remember anything but it's just weird”, Ava stared at the ground digging the toe of her heels into the sidewalk. 

“If it makes you feel any better, the first time I met Sara’s family I poisoned her sister and kidnapped her mom. I met her Dad when he pointed a gun at me. But even so Laurel and I ended up becoming friends. You know I am the one who trained her”, Nyssa was silent for a moment and looked off into the darkness, “Sometimes I still feel guilty about that. I mean the kidnapping and poisoning for obvious reasons. But sometimes I wonder if I had never trained Laurel, would things have still ended up this way?”

“You can’t think that way. Time wants some things to happen and they are unavoidable. Zari ran so many different simulations for Sara with her timeloop program and couldn’t find a timeline where Laurel survived. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“I suppose you are right. Are you ready?”

Ava nodded, “Here goes nothing.”

Ava pressed the buzzer and listened to it ring several times before any answer. A soft voice comes over the speaker, “Who is it?”

“Is this Laurel Lance I’m speaking too?”, Ava asks formally.

“Yes that's me, can I help you?”

“Yes Miss Lance you can. My name is Ava Sharpe and I’m here with my...acquaintance Nyssa al Ghul. I know you don’t know us but we need your help with something really important if we could just come in and talk? It’s about your sister, Sara.”

There was silence on the line and Ava thought Laurel might have hung up. She was about to hit the buzzer again when the voice called out again. “My sister is dead, I think you should leave.”

This time Nyssa thought she would give it a try. “Miss Lance, we are friends of your sister and she really needs your help right now. I know this is all very confusing for you but if you let us in we will explain everything.”

They heard the click of the door unlocking and Ava all but kicked it open to make sure Laurel didn’t change her mind and lock them out again.

“I’m in apartment 203.”

The two rushed up the stairs and were quickly outside Laurel’s door. Ava knocked firmly and they could hear Laurel startle inside. She unlocked the door and pulled it open, staying behind it the whole time. She was definitely on guard and assessing both Ava and Nyssa. 

Ava held her hand out to Laurel, trying to keep it steady so she wouldn’t notice how nervous she was. “Hello, I’m Ava Sharpe, it’s nice to finally meet you”, she smiled. Ava knew what to expect with Laurel but it still came as a shock seeing her in person. Laurel was beautiful with big doe eyes and sharp cheekbones. She could see some resemblance to Sara which instantly made her miss her lover deeply. Ava knew Sara would want to be here for this.

Nyssa stayed back but offered a smile, “I’m Nyssa al Ghul. Thank you for letting us in.”

Laurel eyed Ava’s hand somewhat skeptical but eventually shook it, pressing a little tighter than necessary trying to show some time of dominance. 

“How is it exactly you two know my sister?”, Laurel asked, one hand still hidden behind her back.

“Well Miss Lance, this might be very hard to believe but Sara is not dead. I am your sister's girlfriend and Nyssa over there is her ex. I know this might be a lot to process right now and we will answer any questions you have but we are really on a time constraint. We only have a couple of hours left until Sara disappears completely.”

Laurel was in a state of shock, she stumbled over to the couch and sat down. She looked as if her world was just flipped upside down. She pulled out the hand behind her back and sat down a thin flower vase. 

Ava looked over her shoulder at Nyssa with a look of disbelief. She mouthed, “was she going to try and attack us with that?”

Nyssa nodded and tried to hide her snicker. She had expected something like this out of Laurel. Finally after several moments of silence Laurel spoke again.

“Sara….She’s really alive?”

“Yes, she is and has been in a place called Nanda Parbat with me for the past couple of years. Although she is not the Sara you remember, in order to survive she joined a group called the League of Assassins. The less you know about them the better”, Nyssa added, stepping forward. 

Ava decided it was time to get the whole time travel talk over with. “Laurel I’m about to say some stuff that is going to sound really really crazy and I’m just going to need you to believe me. Nyssa and I are both from the future. Although there is currently a past version of Nyssa with your sister in Nanda Parbat right now. Your sister is a time travelling superhero that goes by the name of White Canary. She was on a mission and something went wrong and Sara...my Sara from my time died”, Ava paused, she was getting choked up thinking about Sara.

Nyssa noticed her struggling and cut in. “That is why we are here. If you help us, we can save Sara now and bring her back. Her life will return to normal and everything will be okay. All we need is for you to come with us to Nanda Parbat and convince Sara to return home with you. Please Laurel, your sister needs you.”

Laurel looked absolutely bewildered but stood up with determination in her eyes. “Either you two are telling the truth or you are absolutely crazy. But if what you're saying is really true, I’d do anything to see Sara again. I’m ready to go wherever we need to.”

Ava let out a sigh of relief, “Oh thank god. I thought you were going to call the police on us or something. Okay, I’m going to open a portal back to the ship and you just have to walk through it. We will get you all suited up and ready from there.”

Ava pulled out her time courier and opened a portal to the waverider. Laurel’s expression when she saw it was absolutely priceless and in that moment Ava wished Sara could have been the one to get to show her sister all this. The three women walked through ready to bring Sara back.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as the women walked out onto the bridge, Laurel was greeted with a warm welcome from Gideon.

“Hello Miss Lance, It is a pleasure to finally meet you after all this time. Captain Lance has told me much about you.”

Laurel looked around frantically for the voice until Gideon manifested herself as the giant blue head hovering over the console. Laurel’s jaw dropped at the surroundings and she looked as if she might faint. “Captain Lance?”, she squeaked out.

Ava was quick to reply, “Welcome to the waverider. This is the time travelling space ship that your sister is the Captain of. That’s actually her Captains quarters right behind you if you’d like to go see her collection of things from missions all throughout time.”

Laurel walked up the two little steps and took in everything happening in the room. There were several bottles of whiskey placed throughout the room, maps and books scattered across the table, and all sorts of different weapons and armor littering the shelves. Laurel's eyes caught a small framed photograph sitting on the table next to Sara’s leather chair. It was a picture taken a few years ago of Sara, Laurel, and Quentin. The three had taken time to spend the day at the park and have some family time. Laurel smiled at the picture and something akin to hope lit up in her eyes. She had that same picture hanging on the wall in her apartment.

Ava took this time to give Laurel a little background information on the mission, “Okay so since it would be too difficult to try and smuggle you into the League, you and I will stay outside a safe distance away. Nyssa will go in and bring Sara back to our location since she has clearance and authority inside the League walls. You just need to convince Sara to come back home to her family and friends. The Sara you are going to see is from this year so she will not recognize me. When Nyssa gets close I will hide so as not to confuse Sara.”

It was a lot for Laurel to process but she was taking it surprisingly well. “You said Sara was not the same Sara I remember, what do you mean?”

“After the incident with the Queen's Gambit, Sara was stuck on an island named Lian Yu. She had to do hard things there in order to survive. If I hadn’t found her when I did I don’t know if she would have made it. I took her back to the League with me where she was trained to be a world class assassin. She has had to do many things in her time there that I wish I could have protected her from. She is not the cheerful innocent young girl you once knew. The Sara you are about to see is hardened and cold. She has not been very happy for a long time now. I could not provide her the life she needed. However, your sister is stubborn and refuses to leave. That is why we need your help. I’m confident that after she sees you, she will be willing to come back home”, Nyssa added, voice laced sorrow.

Laurel seemed saddened by hearing how tough Sara’s life had been. Laurel had never been upset with Sara for taking off with Oli. She had expected that kind of behavior from Oliver to begin with. When she had heard the news she was more distraught over losing Sara then concerned about her sister stealing her boyfriend. Laurel had never truly healed from Sara’s death. Partially because she had never gotten to say goodbye. She had also never felt like Sara was actually gone. This is not the life she had wished for her sister. Just then Charlie walked in followed by Zari who froze when they saw Laurel. They, like Ava, had never met Laurel but had heard Sara talk about her countless times.

Charlie’s jaw dropped when Laurel turned around to face them, “Holy shit, Sara’s sister is smokin’ too. You guys have some crazy good genes.”

Zari’s face got red and she gave Charlie a little smack.

“Oi, what was that for Z”, Charlie exclaimed. 

Zari ignored the puzzled Charlie and made her way over to Laurel. “Hello Laurel, I’m so glad I finally get to meet the legendary Laurel Lance. Your sister is always talking about you and all the stuff you got up to together.”

Laurel shook her hand but had a weird look on her face. “How come all you guys keep saying it’s so nice to meet me? Has Sara never brought me to the ship before. I mean present me, I guess? I don’t know this time travel stuff is kind of confusing.”

Ava gulped, she was trying to avoid Laurel asking this question but she figured she owed her an answer. Charlie and Zari looked like they had seen a ghost. Zari mouthed a sorry to Ava. She had not intended to let Laurel know about her future, she was just trying to be polite. “Laurel why don’t you come with me, I’ll show you Sara’s quarters and tell you all about it.”

Ava walked down the metal hallways with Laurel trailing behind and taking in every last detail. Laurel was no stupid, she knew Ava was deflecting. Whatever Ava had to say, it probably wasn’t going to be good. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ava and Laurel entered Sara’s room and were instantly met with her scent. There were little traces of Sara everywhere from the unmade bed to the clothes strewn on the floor. Both women relaxed a bit once they stepped inside a place that was just so Sara, a place that felt like home to them. Laurel was drawn to Sara’s White Canary suit. It was resting on a mannequin like the ones in the Arrow base. Laurel traced the seams of the reinforced leather with her fingers.

“So my sister is a superhero huh? I always knew she would do amazing things but I can’t say I saw that one coming.”

Ava chucked, “Yes, Sara has saved the world more than anyone will ever know. If you ask me, she is the coolest hero out of all of them but I might be a bit biased.”

“All of them, you mean there are more people like her”, Laurel looked astounded. Of course in her timeline the age of superheroes and vigilantes had yet to occur.

Ava kind of geeked out for a second, “Oh yes there are! There’s the aliens like Supergirl, Superman, Dreamer and the Martian Manhunter. Then you got the Metas: Black Lightning, Flash, Killer Frost, Vibe, Elastic Man, Black Canary, and Black Siren. And you can’t forget the vigilantes like Green Arrow, Batwoman, Spartan, Wild Dog, Mr. Terrific, and Arsenal. Fun fact Sara used to be a vigilante before joining the Legends. Oh and of course in the Legends category we have Sara’s team: Zari and Charlie which you met earlier. Ray, Nate, Mick, Nora, Mona and Constantine. Jax, Amaya, and Wally are retired Legends but they come and help every now and then.”

Ava was so caught up listing off all the heroes that she hadn’t even noticed how baffled Laurel was by all this information. “I take it you’re really into all this superhero stuff then?”, Laurel teased.

Ava blushed, “Sorry, I kinda got all nerdy on you there. I never get to talk to anyone about it so it was fun to share with someone who didn’t know. Sara always makes fun of me when I fangirl over Supergirl.”

“I was just messing with you. I think it’s cool too, I mean my sister is a freaking time travelling superhero. How fucking cool is that? Whenever this stuff happens in my time and I know more about it I’d love to geek out with you”, Laurel smiled. 

Laurel continued walking around looking at Sara’s belongings, trying to get a feel for who her sister was now. Ava let out a strangled noise when she caught sight of some handcuffs on the floor and quickly kicked them under the bed, earning a questioning look from Laurel. Luckily Laurel was quickly distracted by a picture of Sara and Ava on the nightstand. 

“Wow, she is so grown up now. And she looks so happy. Thanks for taking care of her for me. I’m really glad she has you. Don’t tell her I said this, but I like you way better than the silent broody one out there”, Laurel got tearful seeing how her little sister had grown.

Ava couldn’t stop the smile from appearing on her face, “You have no idea how much it means to me to hear you say that. The whole time I’ve known Sara, she has told me stories about you and how much she wanted you to meet me. I’m really glad that I got this opportunity to meet you, even if the situation leading up to it has been absolutely awful.”

“I can tell by the way you’ve all been talking that I died. I don’t want to know anything about it and I’m assuming that it will still happen regardless of what we do today. I just need to ask this now in case I don’t have time later. I can tell that you care about my sister but what are your intentions with her?”

Ava was taken aback by Laurel’s bluntness. “Well to be honest. I have never met anyone like Sara. She makes me feel like no one else can and I can’t imagine life without her. Hence why I am willing to bend and break all the laws of time to bring her back. I love her more than anything and once we finally got a bit of downtime I was planning to propose. I know you have known me for all of five minutes but I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t ask this given the opportunity. Do I have permission to marry your sister?”, Ava sputtered out the last bit quickly. 

It was nerve wracking to actually say that aloud. She had been thinking about it for awhile now but saying it to someone else made it real. Regardless, Ava was ready for the commitment. She knew Sara was the one for her and nothing would change that.

Laurel softened from her protective big sister aura and into a huge smile. “I would love for you to marry my sister. I can see that you make her very happy and you seem like you’re good for her. Even if I’m not here I want to know that she is here safe and happy with you.”

Ava let out a huge breath that she didn’t know she had been holding. “Thank you very much. It means a lot to have your blessing.”

Laurel, now content with Sara’s future and hopeful for the mission was ready to see her sister. “Let’s go get your girl back.”

“With pleasure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to social distancing, I should have plenty of time to write up some more chapters. Hope everyone is staying safe.


	5. Not Without You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so the mission to rescue Sara begins. Laurel and Ava do some more bonding.

Laurel and Ava waited in the shadows of a dusty cave a few miles away from the League’s base of operations. They had opted to dress Laurel in the League attire as well just in case they were spotted by a rogue League scout. Nyssa had assured them that they would be safe there and that they should have no problems. Nyssa had left a while ago to fetch Sara and bring her back to their location. 

Laurel tugged at the League uniform and made a fruitless attempt to fan herself. “How do they wear these things? They are absolutely terrible, I feel like I’m wearing a parka.”

Ava was thrilled that someone shared her sentiment. “I literally said the same thing to Nyssa earlier! I will never understand why they made those their uniforms. I would have opted for a lightweight material or at least some areas to let air in. At the Time Bureau we just used suits and we did just fine.” She got a bit carried away by her director mentality.

“What's the Time Bureau?”

“Nothing now”, Ava muttered slightly bitter. “It was a top secret government facility that monitored the timeline for any changes or anachronisms as we call them. Our job was to go in and fix them, setting the timeline back to normal. I was the director but recently they shut us down because of some cranky congress members. It was all I knew how to do so now that it’s gone I just kind of tag along with the Legends pass the time.”

“Ah, so my sister is dating some big hot shot director. I’m glad she finally got some standards”, Laurel teased.

“More like a highly qualified unemployed loser.”

“Since we have some time and I might never get another chance to ask. How did you and my sister meet?”, Laurel asked.

Ava smiled thinking back at her and Sara’s first encounter. “Well Sara and her team stormed into the Time Bureau to see the director at the time and I tried to have her arrested. She made fun of my suit and stole my gun and from that moment I had decided I hated her. She was infuriating and had a way of pushing my buttons like no one else. The Legends also had a habit of destroying the timeline so Sara got in my way quite frequently. I can’t even explain how much she made me want to rip my hair out. We had fights almost every time we ran into each other and not just verbally. We had full on one on one fights”, Ava chuckled thinking about their fight on the waverider, “One time I went on to the waverider to arrest her and Sara being as stubborn and cocky as she is asked me which arm I wanted broken before whipping out her batons and coming at me. We fought forever until we both got so tired we just laid down on the floor and made a little treaty.”

The look on Laurel’s face was priceless. This was definitely not the little sister she remembered. 

Ava blushed a little and got a sheepish smile on her face, “Then sometime after that things changed. I realized I didn’t hate Sara, I just had a major crush on her. I mean she’s beautiful, smart, funny, charming, a literal superhero, etc. Before I knew it I was hailing the waverider just to talk to her for a couple of minutes. Then she started calling me in private and we would have long talks about anything and everything. We decided to go on a date and it was kind of a disaster. Well, let me rephrase it was absolutely amazing for the first half. It ended in disaster because both our teams were having a crisis and we were trying to hide it from each other. But god did I have fun for the first part. She was absolutely gorgeous sitting there in that red dress. I had never seen anything so beautiful in all my life. She told me all about her life and embarrassing stories like the Peter Pan play. Oh my god she had me laughing so hard I was crying.”

Laurel snorted at the mention of the Peter Pan play. Ava was so lost in her memories she didn’t see the happy look on Laurel's face. Laurel was so glad Sara had found someone so perfect for her. She was content to know that even if she wasn’t there for Sara, Ava would be.

“Anyways, my assistant showed up at the date and I tried to sneak over there and see what he wanted without Sara seeing and when I came back she was gone. It hurt and I thought maybe I was wrong and we shouldn’t be together but we ended up fighting it out and had a makeup kiss that left my head spinning. Whether she knew it or not I was head over heels in love with her by that point. Then there was the first big hurdle in our relationship. Sara got sucked into a sort of death realm by this medallion thing called the death totem. It took her body over and she was single handedly tearing through everyone on the ship. I was able to coax her out of it but when she came out she was different. She was distant and cold with me and that's when she told me she couldn't be with me, that I deserved better. It hurt a lot and I had to leave and go do some soul searching after that. I had fallen for her so hard and so quickly that I really just needed some time alone.”

“Oh my god no way she was so selfless! When we were kids I couldn’t even get her to share a candy bar with me and here she is being all ‘I can’t be with you because I’m not good enough’. Are you sure it’s my sister we are talking about?”, Laurel joked.

Ava stiffened up a bit at the mention of the next topic. “When I ran off I didn’t really tell anyone and was gone for awhile. Sara came looking for me and accidentally discovered something about me that I didn’t even know. I’m actually a clone from the future, well further in the future than the present. Technically I’m a defect and showed more emotion than I was engineered for so I guess I got that going for me. That was a really tough time for me, my whole world was turned upside down. My family were literally paid actors and all my memories were fake. I felt so insignificant, so replaceable and it made me question what the point was of doing anything. Sara was there for me no matter how much I tried to push her away. It took some time but she was able to make me feel real. To feel like I wasn’t just one of thousands of copies.”

“I refuse to believe there is anyone else out there like you, Ava Sharpe. I mean I’ve only known you for a couple of hours but you aren’t just some programmed copy. You are your own person with your own feelings and emotions and you clearly have a family. A family of friends that loves you and will be there for you. And if it means anything, I’ll always be here too”, Laurel offered, while putting a hand on Ava’s shoulder. 

“Thanks for that”, Ava let out a small smile, “After all the clone business, things got better for us. A lot better, Sara partially moved in with me and I’d come and help her with missions. Things were great until the government decided to interfere with my work. I had this new boss who was kind of an asshole. He put a lot of pressure and stress on me especially regarding the Legends. There was a mission where Sara took the monster I was supposed to bring in and she hid it. My boss was on my back about this and Sara refused to hand it over. I felt like she wasn’t in my corner and it hurt. We had a breakup and it was probably the hardest thing I ever had to do. Looking back on it now, it was silly. Sara had been right and I was just too stressed to notice. Sara and the Legends went on the run from the Time Bureau and I took a leave of absence. Well next thing I know this demon named Neron came out of nowhere and tried to take over my body. I fought him the best I could but I wasn’t strong enough on my own. About two weeks after Sara and I had last spoken, she came looking for me at our apartment. I was gone and the apartment was a wreck. She had to have Nora and Constantine use their dark magic to find me. Constantine told her it was too late for me but Sara wouldn’t give up on me. She made John send her to my purgatory to get me back. We worked through all of our issues down there and she was able to bring me back. Ever since then things have been great. We’ve had our trials and tribulations but they just made us stronger. Crazy story right? From enemies to lovers, but I wouldn’t change a thing about it.”

Laurel was flabbergasted, “Wow, that’s gotta be the wildest love story I’ve ever heard. I’m really glad you guys had each other for all that. Thanks for saving my sister by the way. She has always had a way of getting herself into trouble. I can see that you really love her. Thank you for putting up with her too, I know that isn’t always easy. I had always hoped Sara would settle down and find someone to keep her happy. I didn’t know if I’d ever see the day but after meeting you, I’m sure you’re the one.”

“Yeah she certainly keeps me on my toes. But I wouldn’t trade her for the world. She’s my everything.”

Ava checked her watch, Nyssa should be there any minute. “They should be back soon, I’m going to go hide nearby and I’ll be around if you need me. Good luck and you got this. Thanks for listening to me, I can see why Sara admires you so much.”

Ava snuck outside leaving Laurel all alone in the cave mouth. Now that she was alone, Laurel was finally feeling the impact of what was about to happen. She was about to see her little sister again. The sister she thought was dead and who she had missed every single day since then. Laurel would not take no for an answer. Sara was coming back with her even if she had to drag her back kicking and screaming. Laurel had spent the past couple years thinking of what she would say if she ever got to see her sister again, now she was finally getting her chance. She heard movement outside and steeled herself. They had warned her that this is not the same Sara she remembers. Nyssa entered followed by Sara, her blond hair exposed to the world. Laurel gasped at the sight of her. She had tried to prepare herself but it was like seeing a ghost. She was frozen in place.

“Nyssa what the fuck? Why did you bring me all the way out here….who is that?”, Sara immediately put her hand on the hilt of her sword ready to attack if need be. 

“Since I couldn’t get you to listen to me I thought I’d give someone else a try.”

“Sara”, Laurel squeaked out, voice barely above a whisper. Laurel pulled off her hood and stepped towards her sister.

“Laurel?”, Sara was shocked, she was excited to see her sister as she had missed her dearly but at the same time it was the first time they had seen each other since the incident with Oliver. What if Laurel was just here to tell her how shitty it was of her to steal her boyfriend and get him killed?

“Sara, it’s me”, Laurel ran over to hug her sister, “I’ve missed you so much you have no idea. I can’t believe you’re alive. I always knew something wasn’t right. It never felt like you were actually gone.”

“Laur, what are you doing here?”, Sara was starting to tear up, a million different emotions going on inside her head. She was pissed at Nyssa for bringing Laurel into all this League of Assassins bullshit. She was ashamed for Laurel to see her like this. But she was also beyond relieved to see her sister, to know she was okay and doing well. 

“I’m here to bring you home. It’s time to come home. Nyssa told me everything. It’s okay Sara you can be free, you can come home. Everyone will be so happy to see you. Mom and Dad are going to lose their minds when they see you. We all missed you so much. I missed you so much.”

Sara latched onto her sister like she would disappear. Both sisters were crying tears of happiness. “I missed you more than you’ll ever know. I thought about you every single day. About how much you probably hated me and if I could ever make it up to you one day. I’m so sorry Laurel. I was stupid and an asshole and I never should have done that. I betrayed you in the worst kind of way.”

“Hey hey hey, it’s okay really. I was never upset at you. I just wanted my sister back. Besides, Oliver made it back home. We just weren’t meant to be and that helped me realize it. You did me a favor. I’m not mad at you. I love you and I’m so glad you’re okay. Now will you come home with me and tell me all about everything?”

Sara backed off and looked between Laurel and Nyssa. “Laurel...I’m not the same little sister you remember. I’ve had to do things here to survive. Things I’m not proud of. If I told you about them you’d look at me like a monster. And then there's Nyssa. I can’t leave her here like that. I have a life here and I love her. I can’t just go. I’m so glad that I got to see you but I can’t come back with you. I’m sorry. I know I’m just a disappointment to you.”

Nyssa who had been standing back quietly cut in, “Sara I love you and my heart will always yearn for you but we cannot be together. You know this. I will miss you dearly but I will be okay and so will you. Please, just go with Laurel. I need you to go.”

Sara was torn. Did she leave behind the love of her life, her savior and go home with her sister to her family that she thought about every single day. Or did she reject her sister and stay with Nyssa only to live a life that would most likely be cut short. “I...I don’t know what to do.”

Laurel persisted, using her blossoming lawyer skills to convince Sara. “Sara, I know it’s hard but this is what is best for everyone. Think about Mom and Dad. They took your death really hard. Especially Dad, he hasn’t been the same ever since then. He got really distant for a while and he drowns himself in work to stay distracted. It will help him so much to see you, to know you are alive and well. We haven’t really had a happy holiday since you’ve been gone. We tried but all the memories just come rushing back. It’s just not the same without you cracking stupid jokes over Thanksgiving dinner or wearing your Santa hat and tossing out presents. Come back please, our family needs you. You’re the glue that holds us all together. Without you it’s as if we are just a bunch of strangers that get together a few times a year to be all mopey and eat away our sorrows. You can stay with me until we get you back on your feet and I’ll help you with everything. Sara I need my baby sister back, please. I have felt so empty since you’ve been gone. It’s like you took a piece of me with you when you left and it fell to the bottom of the sea along with you. We used to do everything together, talk about everything. Without you everything just feels so wrong.”

Sara’s resolve was breaking with each word Laurel spoke. Deep down she knew it was the right thing to do. She needed to go home. Her family needed her and to be honest she didn’t know how much more she could take of the League. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay. Let’s go home.”

Laurel hugged her sister and Nyssa let out a sigh of relief. Everything would go back to normal now. Laurel pulled out the time courier Ava had leant her and began to open a portal. “Okay I know this is going to sound crazy but I’m going to open up this portal thingy back to my apartment. It's completely safe and everything will be fine just walk on through it and I’ll be right behind you.”

Sara turned and went to say her goodbyes to Nyssa. “I know this is goodbye, but I hope I will see you again. Thank you for everything, I love you. Please stay safe”, Sara planted a chaste kiss to Nyssa’s lips to which Laurel tried to hide her gag. She was team Ava all the way. The kiss left Nyssa looking dumbfounded. It had been so long since she had felt those lips on hers. It reawoke the already present feelings she had buried deep inside making getting Sara to leave her forever that much harder.

Laurel pressed the button and Sara’s eyes widened at the doorway sized portal but she nodded and stepped through. Just then Laurel and Nyssa heard some commotion outside of the cave. Nyssa drew her sword and ran out to see what was happening just in time to see Ava throw a knockout punch to past Nyssa. Past Nyssa hit the ground with a thud and was out cold. Ava brushed off her shoulders and had a huge cocky grin on her face.

Nyssa was highly irritated, “Was that really necessary? Thanks for the brain damage.”

“Well I guess someone should have thought to check if they were being followed then huh? Relax, I even pulled my punch. And to think you said you were the better fighter, yeah right.” Ava could not wait to tell Sara about this later on. She pulled out her memory flasher and pried open Nyssa’s eyelids before wiping her memory and leaving her head to fall face down into the dust.

Laurel, who had watched the whole exchange snorted and her laughter echoed throughout the cave. “You two are hopeless. How did you even manage to work together?

“A lot of patience”, Ava replied, still proud from dropping Nyssa like a rock. Nyssa scowled and dragged her past self into the cave to sleep it off.

Ava approached Laurel with her hand out but was instead met with a tight hug. “I guess this is goodbye for us too then. Thank you for bringing me back to my sister. And no matter what happens, I’m glad I got to meet you. Take care of her for me please.”

“I should be the one thanking you. You just gave me my life back. It was an honor to meet you Laurel. You are everything your sister said you would be and more. I will never forget what you did for me. Take care of yourself.”

Ava pulled her flasher out again but was stopped by Laurel who was looking at her sincerely. “I know this is going to go against your rules but could you let me keep my memories. If I’m not going to survive long enough to meet you one day, I want to live knowing that there is someone out there for Sara. I promise not to speak of this to anyone, I think I understand the repercussions it could have if I did. I just want these memories for myself.”

Ava sighed, “You’re right, it does break the rules. But at this point I’ve broken so many today what is it going to matter. I trust you.” She placed the flasher back in her pocket and smiled. “You seem less inclined to get in trouble than Sara anyways.”

Nyssa, still annoyed with Ava and staring at the black eye forming on her past selves face, stepped forward to say her goodbyes. “Until next time Laurel.”

Laurel waved goodbye and stepped through the portal. Ava had given her a one time use time courier to prevent any anachronisms from coming out of it. 

Ava opened up her own portal for her and Nyssa back to the waverider. “I guess this is it then. The moment of truth.”

They stepped through holding their breath and with their fingers crossed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this fic is progressing faster than I originally intended but I guess i'm bad at drawing things out. Oh well, enjoy!


	6. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava returns to the ship to see if her efforts worked.

Sara was in her room on the waverider about to call her girlfriend when she overheard Gideon greeting someone on the bridge. She knew all her team was on board already so it must be Ava coming home for the night. The thought of seeing Ava brought a smile to her face and she practically skipped to the bridge.

  
  


Meanwhile, Ava started frantically searching for Sara the second she stepped foot on the ship. Each second she didn’t find her, her heart dropped. If they didn’t fix it this time Sara would be gone forever. Finally her worries were wiped away when she saw Sara trot out onto the bridge.

  
  


“Hey babe, how was your da…..umph. Okay someone is happy to see me. What’s gotten into you?”, Sara stumbled back a few steps after Ava practically tackled her into a hug. Ava had slammed her lips against hers mid sentence, not that Sara was complaining. She had yet to notice Nyssa watching the encounter quietly from afar.

  
  


“Oh thank Beebo you’re back. I was so worried that we hadn’t fixed it and that I lost you forever. We spent the whole day trying to get you back. I know you don’t remember anything and I’m going to seem so crazy to you right now but fuck I missed you so much. I...I didn’t know what I would do without you. I love you so much, I’m never letting you go on another mission by yourself again!”, Ava was tearful and talking so fast Sara could barely comprehend what she was saying.

  
  


Sara pushed Ava back a bit to look at her face while still keeping her in her arms. “Okay clearly you’ve had a long day and I’d love to take you home. We can relax and I’ll make you dinner and you can tell me all about it.” 

  
  


Sara had no clue what Ava was talking about and while curiosity was burning a hole through her, she was more concerned about Ava’s well being. Despite all this, her assassin senses kicked in and she felt someone's eyes on her. She bristled and pulled Ava closer to her protectively. 

  
  


Nyssa, knowing her presence had noticed, decided to make herself known. “Hello my beloved”, her voice was laced with compassion. 

  
  


To say Sara was floored would be the understatement of the century. “Nyssa? What are you doing here...how did you even get on my ship we are in the temporal zone?”.

  
  


Sara was sweating bullets. Knowing Ava, there is no way her and Nyssa would get along and there would be lots of jealousy ensued. She pulled back from Ava but still held onto her hand, trying to figure out how to maneuver the situation. 

  
  


“I believe your girlfriend will explain all of that soon. I’ll leave you two alone. I’m glad to see you are okay. Do you mind returning me to Star City?”

  
  


“Uhhhhh yeah sure. Gideon would you do the honors?”, Sara replied, completely lost but eager to get Nyssa as far away from Ava as possible.

  
  


“Of course Captain Lance.”

  
  


Once they landed, Ava and Sara walked Nyssa to the door. As Nyssa was leaving Ava stopped her.

  
  


“Nyssa wait”, Ava offered her hand to Nyssa. “I know we got off to a rough start but thank you for sticking with me. I owe you big time and believe it or not it was actually nice to meet you. Thanks for everything.”

  
  


“I share your sentiment. It was an honor to work with you.”, Nyssa shook Ava’s hand and pulled her in closer whispering, “take care of her and continue to give her the happiness I never could. She deserves it. Oh and if I ever hear you did something to hurt you, I will kill you.”

  
  


Ava laughed, “You think you could kill me? That's cute. Text me whenever you want to have a real fight. I’d be thrilled to kick your ass again.”

  
  


Nyssa scoffed, “That hardly counts as defeating me, you ambushed me. If my memory serves me correctly, I do remember pinning you to a wall earlier today.”

  
  


Sara who had been silently watching the encounter with her mouth hanging open at this friendship? was brought out of her trance at Nyssa’s comment. “You did what now?”

  
  


“I’ll take that as my queue to leave”, Nyssa nodded to Ava and went on her way.

  
  


Sara was completely dumbfounded and turned to her girlfriend who had a silly grin on her face. “You have so much explaining to do. What the hell was that? Are you two like friends now or something?”

  
  


“Oh heavens no, more like frenemies. Now take me home, please. I’ve had one hell of a day and I’d really just like to relax with my girl.”

  
  


Sara smiled, “Anything for you, my love.”

  
  


\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Sara and Ava lay cuddled in bed where they had been for the past hour as Ava recounted the day's events. Sara had not been that phased to know she had died, again. She was getting used to it at this point. She had been angered to hear the way Nyssa had originally treated her girl but honestly that's the kind of interaction she expected them to have. Overall, she was just mind blown as to how everything worked out given her fate had been in the hands of the two most jealous and strong willed women in her life.

  
  


“You punched Nyssa al Ghul in the face? That's my girl! I can’t believe I missed all this. Actually no, I think being there with you two fighting would have been my personal hell. How did you guys manage to put up with one another?

  
  


Ava let out a soft laugh, she was back to her cheerful self now that Sara was back and safe in her arms. “Well we both had one thing in common. We love you and would do anything for you. Although I couldn’t help from getting a little jealous every time she talked about you that way.”

  
  


Sara looked Ava in the eyes, “Aves baby, you have nothing to be jealous for. I am yours. And I choose you. Thank you for dealing with all that and saving me. I love you. You’re perfect.” 

  
  


“Well I couldn’t just let you disappear now could I? I need you. I love you too”, Ava kissed Sara sweetly, pouring her emotion into it.

  
  


After awhile the pair separated, “I still can’t believe Laurel kept all this a secret from me. How’d she play stupid so well when I told her all about you? And to think I was going to take you to meet her, she’s technically known you longer than I have!”

  
  


At the mention of Laurel, Ava had a perplexed look on her face, “You were going to introduce me to Laurel?”

  
  


“Well of course I was silly! You’re my girlfriend and you’re really important to me and I thought that maybe if you were okay with it I could take you to meet my family” 

  
  


Unsure what Sara was meaning and wanting to tread carefully with the topic of Laurel, Ava asked, “Sara honey, how is it exactly you were going to have us meet?”

  
  


“Um...I was just going to go to Star City and pick her up for dinner. Are you okay? You’re acting kind of weird”, Sara was clearly confused as to what Ava was not understanding. 

  
  


“Sara, I don’t mean to bring up any bad feelings but I’m a little confused here. Laurel was killed years ago by Damien Darhk.”

  
  


“Ava what are you talking about? Laurel and I literally had a sisters weekend a few weeks ago.” Sara was propped up on her elbows looking at Ava with concern. 

  
  


“Oh my god when I didn’t flash her it must have changed something in the timeline. Something that allowed her to survive.” Ava pulled out her phone and called Gideon, “Gideon, are there any issues with the timeline regarding Laurel Lance?”

  
  


“No Miss Sharpe, in fact the timeline is in better shape than normal with only minor anachronisms.”

  
  


“Holy fuck I brought Laurel back. I brought Laurel back and there were no consequences. Holy shit we need to go see her. I need to tell Nyssa. I brought Laurel back!”, Ava was practically jumping up and down in her excitement. 

  
  


“Ava, are you saying Laurel was….Laurel was dead?”, Sara asked, pulling Ava out of her celebration.

  
  


“I know you aren’t going to remember this but yes, Laurel was killed for being the Black Canary. Before today, I had never met her and was under the impression that I’d never get the chance. Zari could never find any loopholes to bring her back and you would have her check all the time. You would talk about her constantly and I could see how badly I missed her. When I got you back I was going to tell you how honored I was to have met her but I guess somehow I brought her back.”

  
  


Sara got choked up and latched onto Ava, “Thank you so much Ava. I know I can’t remember any of this but thank you. I can’t imagine life without my sister but I know it would be miserable so thank you for bringing my happiness back. I owe you everything. My hero.” 

  
  


Ava smiled and wrapped her arms around Sara, comforting her. “Hey now, you don’t owe me anything. I would always do anything to save you and Laurel was just an added bonus. Maybe the universe thought you could use break. Speaking of breaks, I’m exhausted. Do you mind if we call it quits for the night?”

“Anything you want babe.”

  
  


\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  
  


After some much needed sleep and an extended morning cuddle session, the pair was awoken by Ava’s phone blowing up. 

  
  


“Aveeeeeeees, shut that off for the love of god”, Sara slurred out, voice laced with slumber. 

  
  


Ava slammed her hand down blindly on the nightstand trying to find her phone without getting up. She squinted her eyes at the bright screen and tried to read who was blowing up her phone.

  
  


**4 Missed Calls - Zari**

**8 Missed Calls - Ray**

**1 Missed Call - Rory**

**4 New Messages - Nora**

**6 New Messages - Charlie**

**3 Snapchats - Nate**

  
  


“What the fuck, your team won’t stop messaging me.”

  
  


“Well tell them shhhhhhh, I’m taking a vacation day”, Sara was unfazed and refusing to move from her cozy spot by Ava’s side. 

  
  


**Nora Darhk**

**8:04am : Ava where are you?**

**8:20am : Did you get Sara back? We looked all over the ship and there's no trace of you or Sara.**

**8:25am: Could you call us back, we’re all worried about you and Gideon won’t tell us anything.**

**9:00am : You know we are here for you if you need anything.**

**Charlie**

**11:00am : Oi, Missus Captain, did you fix everything?**

**11:38am : Z is about to call the justice league to order.**

**11:52am : Things are kind of crazy here, we could use our leader.**

**12:03pm: Mick is stress drinking and threatening to light the ship on fire.**

**12:45pm: You don’t have to come back or anything but could you just let us know what happened.**

**1:03pm : If you don’t respond in an hour we are tracking you down.**

Ava opened Nate's snapchat next to see a video of Zari pacing the floor cramming donuts in her mouth. Mick trying to pick a fight with everyone. Ray speaking out possible reasons for why Ava wasn't answering and seeming somewhat distraught. Even Constantine appeared to be doing some kind of magic voodoo ritual with a picture of Sara and Ava possibly trying to track them. The camera switched to Nate's face, "Please come back Ava we need you."

  
  


“Oh shit. I forgot to tell the team that I fixed everything. Shit they probably think you’re dead and I’m off on some crazy grieving bender. We must have slept through most of these.”

  
  


“Figures, I’m gone for a day and they descend into chaos.”

  
  


Suddenly they were both startled by an alarmingly loud knock on the window. “Did someone just throw a rock at my window?”, Ava asked in disbelief. 

  
  


“Um, sorry to intrude. But Sara, are you in there?”, a gentle voice asked from behind the curtain.

  
  


“No fucking way they sent her”, Sara hopped out of bed and threw a shirt on before stomping over to the window and ripping back the curtains to reveal Supergirl hovering outside her window with her hands covering her eyes. 

  
  


“Kara, I’m going to give you 5 seconds to explain why you’ve woken me up before I kick your ass super strength or not”, Sara demanded, “And you can uncover your eyes.”

  
  


Kara let out a sigh of relief, “I just thought I’d be careful, I walked in on Alex and Maggie once and I can never unsee that. I’m here because your team called me and said you disappeared or something?”, Kara peaked her head around and gave a little wave to Ava who was starstruck and trying to cover herself up with the blanket. “Hi, you must be Ava! It’s nice to finally meet you!”

  
  


“I’m sorry they bothered you. I’ll take care of them. Thanks for checking up”, Sara looked back at Ava and laughed, “sorry about her, she’s totally fangirling right now.”

  
  


Hearing this Ava turned beet red, “I am not, I just wasn’t expecting guests is all.”

  
  


“Okay well I’ll leave you guys alone. Oh and Sara, superfriends game night at my place this weekend? Ava can come too!”

  
  


“Sure why not”, she shrugged.

  
  


Kara did a little spin of excitement. “Awesome and get ready to get your butt kicked. Us Danver’s sisters don’t play around. Plus Lena is on my team and she’s a total genius.”

  
  


Sara didn’t miss the blush on Kara’s face at the mention of Lena Luthor. Sara crossed her arms with her signature smug smile and raised an eyebrow. “Lena Luthor huh, you too seem to have gotten awfully close lately.”

  
  


Kara blushed even more, “What nooooooo no no, not like that. We’re just really good friends you know.”

  
  


“Yeah, Ava and I were just really good friends too until I got her into bed with me.”

  
  


Ava threw a pillow at Sara’s head. “Sara stop teasing her, leave the poor girl alone. I look forward to meeting Lena, Sara told me a little bit about her. She seems like an amazing person.”

  
  


Kara swooned, “Yeah she is pretty great.”

  
  


“You would know wouldn’t you”, Sara replied in a suggestive voice.

  
  


“Sara, I swear to god.”

  
  


“You know I think I hear a fire or something. Duty calls, you know the drill. Okay see you guys later!”, Kara zipped off into the sky to try and ignore more self incrimination. 

  
  


Sara laughed to herself, “That girl’s got it bad.”

  
  


“Yeah, because you wont leave her alone.”

  
  


“Hey, she needs a little push. We all saw the longing looks of love she gave Lena during crisis. Besides, who’s side are you on?”

  
  


Sara tried to climb back in bed with Ava but was kicked off and landed on the ground. “Oh no you don’t. You’ve kept me in this bed long enough. You need to go call your team.”

  
  


“Come on babe. Five more minutes. Pleaseeeeeeeee, I’ll make it worth your time”, Sara added suggestively.

  
  


Ava visibly gulped and turned a little red at the suggestion, “As nice as that sounds, I’m pretty sure if we wait one second longer the waverider is going to bust through my roof.”

  
  


“You’re probably right. They clearly jump to extremes when I’m gone. I’ll go call Z.”

  
  


“Sara wait”, Ava got out of the bed and let the blankets fall. “I’ll take you up on that offer later tonight”, she winked and pulled Sara in for a passionate kiss.

  
  


“That never gets old”, Sara smiled, easily seduced by her girlfriend's words. 

  
  


“Hey do you think we could go see your sister today? I think I have some explaining to do", Ava asked as she pulled on a robe.

  
  


“I was going to ask you the same thing.”

  
  


“Okay. You go call the team and I’ll whip us up some food then we can head out.” 

  
  


“Have I ever mentioned how perfect you are?”

  
  


“Hmmm no I don’t think you have. Why don’t you say it some more”, Ava teased before planting a kiss on Sara’s forehead and leaving her to deal with her frantic team.

  
  


\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  


After popping onto the ship briefly so everyone could visibly see that Sara was alive and well, Sara and Ava found themselves outside Laurel’s apartment building. Sara had a spare key so she let herself in and tried to use her assassin skills to sneak up on Laurel before Ava realized what she was doing and made Laurel aware of their presence.

  
  


“Hey Laurel, it’s Ava. Are you home?”

  
  


Sara gave Ava a sad puppy look. “You’re no fun.”

  
  


“What trouble has Sara gotten herself into now?”, Laurel asked from the next room.

  
  


“Why does everyone always assume I’ve done something wrong?”

“Oh, Sara’s here too”, Laurel was shocked at the sight of both of them. According to what Ava had told her all those years ago, she would never get the chance to meet Ava with Sara. She had just assumed that maybe since Sara had been talking about Ava so much recently that her impending death would be soon. Although to be honest, she had a feeling that maybe something was different now and maybe just maybe the universe wouldn’t want her dead.

  
  


“Don’t sound so happy to see me, Sis”, Sara teased and went to give Laurel a hug.

  
  


“Sorry, it’s just I never expected this to happen.”

  
  


“That’s what we’re here about. It seems the timeline has changed and this time for the better. Somehow you being aware of the future prevented your death. You have officially cheated death, congratulations."

  
  


Laurel had to sit down at the news. “You mean my death was already supposed to have happened? Oh thank god, every time I thought that maybe something was different, that thought was nagging at the back of my mind telling me not to get my hopes up. I wanted to contact you Ava but I honestly had no clue how to and I was worried that if I did I might mess up the whole timeline thing. I can’t explain how good this feels.”

  
  


“I was just as shocked as you when I got back on the ship and Sara brought you up.”

  
  


“And to think you don’t consider yourself a superhero. You saved both of us. Thank you. Sara, you better keep this one.”

  
  


Ava blushed at Laurel’s comment. “I didn’t do anything. I guess the universe just wanted to let the Lance sisters catch a break.”

  
  


Sara grabbed her girlfriends hand and pulled her to sit next to her on the couch. “Don’t sell yourself short babe. You’re my hero.”

  
  


“So Ava how has everything been since I last saw you? You have got to tell me all about Sara’s reaction when she saw both you and Nyssa stroll onto the waverider. I would kill to have witnessed that.”

  
  


“You really enjoy my suffering don’t you”, Sara mumbled.

  
  


“Well actually it hasn’t even been a day since I’ve last seen you because time travel and stuff but considering I got to spend all that time with Sara it’s been pretty great. And I wish I had a picture, I will never forget the look on Sara’s face when she saw Nyssa. Her jaw dropped to the floor and I’ve never seen her look so uncomfortable before”, Ava started laughing thinking about Sara's reaction.

  
  


“In my defense, I never in a million years imagined that you two would meet each other. I always thought that if you and Nyssa had to be in a room together that you’d tear each other's heads off. So that was actually my personal hell."

  
  


“To be fair, we didn’t get off to a great start.”

  
  


“Well I for one am very glad it is Ava sitting here with us instead of Nyssa. She was very...intense. And not near as likable as Ava", Laurel interjected.

  
  


Sara looked lovingly at her girlfriend, “Me too. And believe it or not, Ava herself used to be quite the ice queen. She's just warmed up to me."

"Oh do tell!", Laurel exclaimed.

The trio proceeded to talk and exchange stories for hours with Laurel and Ava really getting to know one another. Sara was extremely happy to see her love and her sister getting along so well. She was glad things were getting back to normal. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So online learning is proving to be much more difficult than I anticipated. Sorry it took so long for an update.


	7. Superfriends Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and Ava have some sexy time before going to Kara's game night.

“Soooo, I get to meet all your superfriends tonight. Do I call them by their real names or am I supposed to use hero names only?”, Ava asked while flipping through her wardrobe searching for something to meet the literal saviors of the universe in. 

  
  


She wouldn’t admit it but she was really nervous. Sure she was used to being around the Legends but they were waaaaaay different than the other heroes. Plus they were like family to her. And to make it worse they hadn’t been invited. It was a ‘paragons only’ party plus their guests. Ava wasn’t all that used to social gatherings or even just friends in general. She was scared she wouldn’t know how to act around them. She wanted to make a good first impression and get to know Sara’s friends. Sara had known all these people for years and been through hell and back with them, now Ava was the new kid on the block. As of right now the only hero she had met was Supergirl and Sara had to go and out her as a fangirl so there's that. 

  
  


Sara could hear Ava’s nervousness through her shaky voice. She had anticipated that this little get together would cause Ava some anxiety. Especially since the rest of the Legends weren’t coming. Evermore, Ava had been trying to pick out an outfit for the past thirty minutes, wanting to make the best first impression. Sara approached Ava from behind and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend's waste, planting soft kisses down the back of Ava’s neck.

  
  


“Aves, I can feel you worrying from across the room. And for the record you look amazing in anything you wear and my friends could care less if you showed up in sweatpants.”

  
  


Ava was appalled at the thought, “I can’t wear sweatpants to meet the Justice League! Are you insane?!”

  
  


“Well maybe if you stop thinking about them as the saviors of the universe and maybe as just my family you wouldn’t be so nervous”, Sara giggled into Ava’s neck. 

  
  


“I know I know, I can't help it though. I think it will be easier when I see them playing trivial pursuit or something”, Ava leaned into her girlfriends touch and allowed Sara to comfort her.

  
  


Sara reached into the closet and pulled out a white tank and a black leather jacket and shoved them into Ava’s hands. “Let me save you some time. Wear this, it’s simple, comfortable, and appropriate without looking like you spent thirty minutes picking out an outfit. Plus you look super hot in it.”

  
  


“Fine, I’ll fit right in with all your leather wearing friends”, Ava jested.

  
  


“By the end of the night, they’ll be your friends too.”

  
  


Ava turned in Sara's arms to see her girl’s face. “You always know the right things to say.”

  
  


“Of course I do. How else would I have managed to land someone as perfect as you without some serious sweet talking skills.”

  
  


“Don’t get too cocky there Lance.”

  
  


“You secretly love it when I’m cocky”, Sara smirked before it was wiped off her face by a heated kiss from Ava. 

  
  


Ava backed Sara up to the edge of the bed before pushing her down and straddling her waist. Ava deepened the kiss adding some tongue to the mix, earning a desire filled moan from Sara. Sara’s hands roamed Ava’s toned body, tracing every muscular inch before settling on her ass and squeezing hard. Ava broke the kiss to focus her attention on removing Sara’s all too tight shirt. Sara used the shift of focus to her advantage and flipped them, pinning Ava’s hands above her head. Their breathing was ragged and their eyes darkened with desire. Ava strained her arms but was met with more force.

  
  


A low grow escaped Sara’s throat, “Oh no you don't. You’re mine.” She kissed across Ava’s jawline and down her throat before biting hard enough to leave a mark then soothing it over with her tongue. 

  
  


“Mmmhm baby, not that I don’t like when you’re all sexy and dominant or anything but don’t

you think you should maybe ease up on the hickeys before the party”, Ava pretested, voice breathy and full of need. 

  
  


“I gotta mark my territory. Kate will throw herself at any hot girl in sight and this is going to be her batsignal to stay the hell away. And you are taken”, Sara replied against Ava’s skin before moving lower and leaving another mark on Ava’s collarbone. 

  
  


Sara kissed her way down to Ava’s nipple before taking it into her mouth running her tongue over the nub. She gave it a little bite causing Ava to yelp and arch her back into Sara. She continued to kiss and suck on the nub before switching to the other breast. She moved one hand slowly up and down Ava’s body while keeping the other above to restrain her hands. Ava writhed in pleasure at Sara’s touch. Sara slipped her hand under Ava’s pants and cupped her through her underwear. Ava had soaked through her lace panties and whimpered at the touch. Sara continued to rub with just enough pressure to build Ava up but not give her what she needed. Sara shifted her attention from Ava’s breasts back to her lips in a passionate kiss before pushing herself off Ava and turning to walk away. 

  
  


She left Ava breathless, confused, and very aroused, “Why did you stop?”

  
  


Sara turned and gave her the smuggest look Ava had ever seen, “We’re going to be late for game night. And you were the one who’s so worried about first impressions.”

  
  


Ava moved to grab Sara and push her into the wall but once again was immediately flipped by the smaller woman. Sara was just playing with Ava at this point but she couldn’t hide the desire in her eyes.

  
  


“Sara, we are literal time travelers”, she begged, pushing against Sara in a desperate attempt to get some friction.

  
  


Sara gave off a low laugh, “Someone’s needy.”

  
  


“Oh please, don’t act like you don’t feel the exact same way.”

  
  


Sara answered her comment through a deep kiss ending with her tugging on Ava’s lower lip with her teeth. Sara returned her hand to its spot between Ava’s legs before slipping her panties to the side and coating her fingers in the slick wetness. Ava grinded against Sara’s fingers trying desperately to get them where she needed. Ava could admit that Sara had gotten her worked up a lot faster than usual. Maybe it had something to do with this being their first time together since the whole Nanda Parbat ordeal. Or more than likely it was just the confidence and sudden dominance getting her so turned on. Regardless, it was working all too well and Ava was sure she’d come undone quickly once Sara put those magic fingers to work. Sara continued to tease Ava, tracing lazy circles around her clit running her fingers through her folds trying to get Ava as worked up as possible. 

  
  


“Baby please. I need you”, Ava whimpered, voice barely above a whisper.

  
  


Hearing the words she was waiting for, Sara slid her fingers inside slowly before drawing them all the way out and repeating the process. Sara watched for Ava’s reaction, as she loved to see the way she would always close her eyes and throw her head back with her face reddened and always a gasp of pleasure. Ava wrapped her legs around Sara’s waist and allowed her to hold her while she grinded on and rode her fingers. Sara increased the pace until Ava’s moans were intensifying and she could feel her nails leaving marks down her back. She curled her fingers inside and pushed Ava over the edge. Ava’s body rippled with pleasure then relaxed in Sara’s arms. Sara pulled her fingers out and carried Ava over to the bed before sitting her down and tasting her girlfriend off of her fingers. Watching Sara lick her juices off of her fingers caused Ava’s arousal to build right back up again and she pulled Sara down on top of her. Ava, now less focused on her own release and more intent on pleasing her girl, moved her head to latch on to one of Sara’s breasts while kneading the other one with her hand earning a throaty moan out of Sara. Ava slid her other hand down Sara’s exposed back and over her ass, giving her a playful smack. Sara wasn’t one to show it but she needed Ava’s touch just as much as Ava had needed hers. At some point during the process, Ava had positioned her thigh firmly against Sara’s center and Sara had subconsciously started grinding against it. Ava returned her lips to Sara’s where she was met with hungry kisses. Ava, unlike her cocky girlfriend, wasn’t one to make Sara beg and she could tell Sara was ready for her from her short, ragged breaths. Ava moved her hand to trail up and down the soft pale skin of Sara’s inner thigh. Ava didn’t miss the bead of wetness making its way down her leg and carried it back up to Sara’s core. She slid her long fingers between Sara’s folds, pulling another deep moan out of the assassin. Sara’s legs began to shake as she felt herself get closer and closer with each one of Ava’s movements. Ava felt Sara come on her fingers and relished the moan she drew from her lovers lips as she came. Ava left her fingers inside to help Sara ride out the orgasm, then pulled her girlfriend into a sweet kiss before Sara lazily flopped down on her chest. Ava traced circles on Sara’s back with her fingers and planted soft kisses along her shoulder. 

  
  


“I love you.”

  
  


“I love you too, Aves.”

  
  


The two laid in bed for a few minutes more enjoying the closeness before reluctantly pulling away and getting dressed. 

  
  


“Did that help take your mind off things”, Sara joked.

  
  


Ava burst out laughing and pulled out her time courier to open a portal to Kara’s apartment, "Yeah because that was totally what you were going for there."

  
  


\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Sara knocked on the door to Kara’s apartment and heard a loud thump, a string of curse words, and then someone get to the door way faster than humanly possible. They had actually arrived a bit early thanks to time travel and were the first guests there. A cheerful yet slightly disheveled Kara opened the door and greeted them. The apartment was as cozy as always and lit with soft ambient lighting that really made it seem like a friendly atmosphere.

  
  


“Sara! Ava! So glad you two could make it, come on in!”

  
  


“We brought wine!”, Ava held up two bottles of expensive wine which immediately attracted the eye of Lena Luthor who was sitting awkwardly on the couch and fixing her hair.

  
  


“Are those 500 year old bottles of wine?! Where on earth did you get those? They must have cost a fortune!”, Lena’s normally stoic expression was ruined when her eyebrows shot to the ceiling after seeing the label. Even by Lena’s billionaire standards, these were top quality bottles of wine.

  
  


“Perks of time travel. Our resident thief Mick swiped it off the shelf during a mission”, Ava laughed.

  
  


“Lena Luthor, nice to meet you.”

  
  


“Ava Sharpe, same to you”, Ava introduced herself before answering countless questions about the logistics of time travel from the younger Luthor.

  
  


Ava was happy to geek out about it with Lena, after all it was her area of expertise and Lena seemed truly excited by the topic. Science was always an easy conversation starter for her. Meanwhile Kara and Sara had a conversation of their own across the room. Sara was relieved to see her girlfriend settling in and noticed Ava’s body language relax the more she conversed with Lena. 

  
  


“Aw look at that, how cute! Our little nerds are already making friends. They grow up so fast”, Sara joked, pulling a blush out of Kara at the implication that she and Lena were together.

  
  


“Lena and I we aren’t, we aren’t together or anything, we’re just good friends is all”, Kara stumbled on her words and nervously adjusted her glasses. 

  
  


“Oh really? Tell that to the cherry red lipstick smudge on your lips. You know, the one that almost matches the blush on your cheeks right now”, Sara teased with a smug grin on her face.

  
  


Kara immediately covered her mouth with her hands and rushed off to the bathroom to wipe away the evidence. She returned moments later, embarrassed at having been caught. Sara didn’t miss the cheesy grin Kara broke out in when Lena gave her a quizzical look. 

  
  


“So are you going to tell me what's going on between the two of you or are you just going to make me tease it out of you the rest of the night?”

  
  


“Fine, okay if it will make you shut up. Rao you’re so nosy. You can’t tell anyone else, got it? I haven’t even told Alex yet and she already suspects me enough as it is”, Kara sighed, secretly she was kind of excited to tell someone about her new relationship. Sara pretended to zip her lips, proud of the fact that it only took a little teasing to get Kara to crack.

  
  


“After crisis Lena and I talked and sorted everything through. It was rough at first, she was pissed at me for having betrayed her but I dedicated every day to making it up to her. Things were starting to slip back to the way before and spending all that time with her was starting to make my crush resurface. But I tried to hide it because there's no way someone as amazing as Lena hecking Luthor could be into me, right? Well turns out she actually had liked me all along and so the other night when I was visiting we got to talking and the hours flew by and suddenly she kissed me! Rao, it was so amazing! Her lips are so soft and nice. Ever since we’ve been spending a bunch of time in private since we are both in the public eye so much and we aren’t ready to deal with that yet”, Kara looked like a love struck puppy. Sara smiled knowing what her friend was feeling before Kara even knew it yet. 

  
  


“I’m happy for you Kara. I’m glad you finally got the girl. You should have seen the way you were pining over her all crisis. We were supposed to be saving the multiverse and you were all ‘Lena this, Lena that, Is Lena okay?’. So obvious.”

  
  


Kara looked appalled at the implication, “I wasn’t that obvious! Oh Rao was I?! Did everyone else catch on to that or was it just you?”

  
  


“Everyone except for your new bestie Kate. Although I'm convinced she noticed it but chose to ignore it. She’s totally got the hots for you by the way.”

  
  


“What no. Kate….into me? Pshhhh no way! Besides, she flirts with everyone”, the idea of Kate having a thing for her seemed laughable to Kara.

  
  


“I’m telling you. She couldn’t keep her eyes off of you. I bet she’ll do it tonight, just watch.”

  
  


Just then there was a knock at the door and Kara went to answer it, relieved by the exit from that conversation it created. The door opened before she got there as Alex and Maggie let themselves in. Although Alex wasn't a paragon, Kara had to make an exception and invite her because Alex would actually kill her if she wasn’t invited to game night. Plus J’onn had previous arrangements so Alex was taking his spot. 

  
  


“Alex hey! And you brought Maggie too!”, Kara exclaimed and moved to hug the two of them.

  
  


“Hey sis.” 

  
  


“Hey little Danvers. I stopped at the dive bar and got you some of your special alien booze for you and the speedster.”

  
  


“Thanks Maggie, trying to get me drunk I see?”

  
  


Maggie leaned closer to Kara and whispered in her ear, “just a little liquid courage for you to talk to little Luthor.”

  
  


Kara groaned, why was everyone so intent on meddling in her love life?

  
  


Alex assessed the room and suddenly grew stiff when her eyes fell on Sara. Sara laughed to herself, of course Alex would still be awkward around her, even after a couple of years. 

  
  


“Sara hey, good to see you”, Alex greeted, averting her eyes elsewhere.

  
  


“Danvers, been a long time. Does your ass still hurt?”, Sara joked, enjoying the way it made Alex squirm.

  
  


“Ohhhhkay that's enough of that. I’ve already been tortured enough tonight, I don’t want to have to listen to that again”, Kara pulled her sister away to talk and eat endless amounts of potstickers. 

  
  


Ava, who had been watching the encounter from afar decided to come over and see what the woman’s awkward behavior had been about. She snuck up behind her girlfriend and rested her head on Sara’s shoulder. “Ouch Lance, and to think you call yourself a charmer. She couldn’t get away from you fast enough. Who is that?”

  
  


“That my love, is Kara’s older sister Alex. And I am too a charmer, I have you don’t I? Besides, I’ve already used my charms on Alex before. We had a one-night-stand a few years back and she’s still really awkward about it. I like to play with her, it’s really fun.”

  
  


“You seem to like making me hang around your ex’s. She doesn’t really seem like your type”, Ava stated with slight jealousy in her voice as she eyed Alex up and down.

  
  


“She was heartbroken and I was, well you know how I was, and we were both really drunk. God, that makes me sound really bad.”

  
  


Ava kissed her love on the cheek. “Yes yes I know, I tamed the insatiable beast that was Sara Lance.”

  
  


Across the room, Alex seemed to be having a similar conversation with Maggie who burst out laughing at the way Alex was behaving. 

  
  


“So who's that girl she’s talking to?”

  
  


“I actually don’t know. But I guess we’ll find out soon because she’s headed this way.”

  
  


“So, you’re the one that’s got my fiancée acting like an awkward teenage boy. Alex normally radiates confidence so of course I had to come and meet the woman that caused her to have a permanent cringe on her face. Names Maggie”, Maggie offered out her hand with a cheeky smile.

  
  


“Sara Lance, and this is my girlfriend Ava. Sorry about that by the way. She’s just so easy to tease, I can’t help myself”, Sara shook her hand and raised an eyebrow at the tight handshake.

  
  


“This one likes to make people as uncomfortable as possible, she already got Kara earlier”, Ava playfully smacked Sara’s arm.

  
  


“You got dirt on little Danvers!? Oh you so have to share. Messing with Kara is like my favorite pastime”, Maggie asked in a hushed voice and slung her arm around Sara’s shoulders to interrogate her.

  
  


“Is it something about Lena? It is isn’t it? You know I’m a detective, I’ll get it out of you. Spill. The. Beans.”

  
  


“Sorry I had to promise Kara I wouldn’t tell and I really don’t need an angry kryptonian giving me the evil eyes plus laser vision”, Sara joked.

  
  


“Okay okay, fair enough. I’ll give you that one. It is NOT fun being on Kara’s bad side”, Maggie almost shivered in fear thinking back on a distant memory.

  
  


“You say that like you’ve been on the receiving end of said laser vision.”

  
  


“Haha yeah funny story. So when I messed things up with Alex a few years ago, Kara may have swung by my apartment and let’s just say she gave me a stern talking to”, Maggie laughed and scratched the back of her head innocently.

  
  


A light bulb turned on in Sara’s mind, “Oooooooohhhh so you’re the heartbreaker. You really did a number on Alex. We bonded over it.”

  
  


Ava murmured quietly with a bit of malice, “So that’s what we’re calling hookups nowadays.”

  
  


Maggie laughed and spread her infectious smile, “Feisty, I like this one. And yep that’s me, Maggie Sawyer asshole extraordinaire. It wasn’t my finest moment.”

  
  


Ava offered Maggie a genuine smile, “Well it certainly looks like you’ve made it up to her considering the ring on her finger.”

  
  


“Yeah I decided that no matter our disagreements I needed Alex in my life. That if she wants kids maybe I can give it a shot. She’s worth it after all.”

  
  


“Well I’m glad everything worked out between you two.”

  
  


There was another knock on the door and Kate entered with a bouquet of flowers and some fancy alcohol. Her normally broody face immediately lit up when she spotted Kara. 

  
  


Sara nudged Ava with her elbow, “Hey Aves watch this. So bats over there totally has a crush on Kara but she doesn’t believe me. This is going to be quality entertainment. I’m willing to bet Lena isn’t going to be too happy about this development.”

  
  


“I’m sorry, bats?”, Ava clearly didn’t get the nickname.

“Oh yeah, that's Batwoman. And I never noticed it before but you’re totally right. Kate is practically drooling all over Kara”, Maggie added, analyzing the scene with her detetive vision.

  
  


“You know Kate’s identity?”, Sara asked.

  
  


“Pshhh yeah, I used to live in Gotham. We had a thing once. Anyways, this is juicy. I gotta go tell Alex. See ya.”

  
  


Ava burst out laughing, “Is this a thing? Should I be worried? What is it with you superheroes and sleeping around with each other.”

  
  


The two watched as Kate offered the flowers to Kara and then gave her a hug that lasted longer than one between friends should. Kara as always was stumbling over her words, now more than ever that she was subconsciously aware of what Sara had mentioned earlier. If looks could kill, Kate would be no longer. Lena watched the whole encounter with newfound hatred in her eyes. Kara gave Sara a pointed look of desperation. Her eyes were screaming ‘oh my god you were right please help me’. 

  
  


“Feel like saving Supergirl?”

  
  


“What do you mean?”

  
  


“Well if someone doesn’t intervene in this awkward encounter I’m pretty sure Lena is going to explode based on the look she's sending their way. Plus look at Kara, she’s like a lost little puppy, she won’t be able to get out of this on her own, she's too nice.”

  
  


“Okay so what's the plan?”

  
  


“Just follow my lead babe.”

  
  


Sara trekked off towards Kara and Kate with Ava trailing slightly behind. 

  
  


“Well if it isn’t Kate Kane! How’s it going? How's the post crisis world been treating ya?”

  
  


To say Kate looked put off by the intrusion would be an understatement, “Lance, I told you to stop calling me that.” 

  
  


Ava’s approach caught Kate’s eye who looked her up and down slowly before developing a smirk, “And who do we have here?”

  
  


It worked, her attention was temporarily off of Kara. Unfortunately for Sara, it was not on Ava. Sara wrapped her arm around the small of Ava’s back and pulled her closer. 

  
  


“Bats, this is my girlfriend Ava. Ava is this Kate Kane, also known as the biggest lesbian in Gotham.”

  
  


“Hell of an introduction Lance”, Kate rolled her eyes at Sara’s antics, “Nice to meet you Ava. But real talk, what did she do to get you? Is she holding you against your will?”

  
  


“Actually it's probably the other way around. After all, I was her boss for awhile.”

  
  


“Oh I see what this is. You’re whipped!”, Kate started laughing and making whip sounds.

  
  


“Well she is VERY talented with a whip”, Sara suggested causing everyone to cringe at the implication. 

  
  


“It was one time and it was for a mission!”Ava exclaimed, trying to preserve her dignity, face bright red. 

  
  


Kate directed her attention back to Kara, “Anyways, is everyone here? I’m ready to kick some game night ass!”

  
  


Kara led the three further into the apartment, “Ermmmm well we are still missing Barry, Iris, and Felicity.”

  
  


“Figures, just like the fastest man alive to be late”, joked Sara. 

  
  


Just then Barry phased through the door, “Well I’m sorry we aren’t all time travelers like you Sara.”

  
  


He turned to open it for Iris and Felicity. Ava picked up on a slight shift in Sara’s demeanor at the sight of Felicity. 

  
  


“Last time I checked you can travel through time too. Oh wait, my bad, we took that privilege away from you after you kept breaking the timeline.”

  
  


“I’ll never hear the end of that”, Barry muttered.

  
  


Kara looked at Barry in disbelief, “You know you could have just knocked.”

  
  


“Yeah of course. But where’s the fun in that? I wanted to make a grand entrance.”

  
  


Meanwhile Lena was still staring at the door with her mouth hanging open trying to decide if she really saw a man just vibrate through the front door or was she hallucinating. No matter how many superheroes and weird alien shit she saw, it would never not amaze her.

  
  


Sara made her way over to Felicity who gave a meek little smile when she saw her. 

  
  


“Hey Sara, good to see you”, the two hugged. Ava watched from afar not wanting to intrude on the moment. She guessed from what Sara had told her that this was Oliver’s wife. She knew the two had some history given Felicity was an original member of team Arrow. The first real team Sara was ever on unless you counted the League of Assassins.

  
  


“Felicity, how are you? I didn’t know you were coming tonight.”

  
  


“As good as you can be when you get dragged along to a party full of superheroes that all remind you of your dead husband”, Felicity responded in a serious tone.

  
  


Sara flinched at the bluntness.

  
  


Felicity's tone changed to more upbeat and she started rambling on in her typical manner, “I’m kidding I’m kidding, well mostly. Kara invited me and I thought it might be good for me to be around some friends. Especially since I’ve just been alone in a cabin with Mia and my thoughts for what feels like an eternity. Don’t worry. I’m okay, seriously. I just want to spend some time with my friends and have a little break from reality.”

  
  


“Don’t do that! You had me worried with all your doom and gloom”, Sara punched Felicity playfully in the shoulder.

  
  


“Aw you really do care. The mighty Sara Lance has a heart!”

  
  


“Shhhhh, don’t say that too loud. There’s people here that will use that against me”, Sara cast a glare in Kate’s direction. 

  
  


“So, are you going to introduce me to the woman that captured said heart or are you just going to make her stand back there awkwardly the whole night?”, Felicity peeked her head around Sara and waved at Ava who seemed startled by it.

  
  


“I was getting there. Damn Felicity, you aren’t taking any prisoners tonight. All business.”

  
  


“You know I just like to give you shit.”

  
  


“Yeah yeah. Aves come here real quick. Ava, Felicity, Felicity, Ava. Felicity here is my oldest friend at the party and don’t let her innocent demeanor fool you. She can be pretty snarky when she wants to.”

  
  


“Whatever are you talking about Sara”, Felicity played coy and covered her heart with her hand.

  
  


“It’s nice to meet you Felicity”, Ava wanted to apologize about Oliver but decided to keep silent on that topic, not wanting to bring up any bad feelings.

  
  


“Likewise, so how did you two meet?”

  
  


“I was part of a secret government agency and Sara had gotten herself into trouble and was on the run. I was tasked with finding her and bringing her in. There was lots of fighting and arguing but eventually she won me over with her charm.”

  
  


“Yeah that sounds about right”, Felicity laughed, not at all surprised that Sara had been wanted by the government.

  
  


Barry called out to the room and raised a shot glass, “Alright I’m going to need all the paragons to come take a shot. It’s our time to get loose. No fighting it, that means you Kara. Get over here.”

  
  


Sara winked at Ava before joining Barry, “Let the festivities begin.”

  
  


That left Felicity and Ava together alone. Felicity broke the silence first, “So Laurel told me the other day that you saved her and Sara. I’m not going to even pretend to understand all that time travel mess but I just wanted to say thanks. Laurel and Sara are kind of the only constants I have left in my life right now. They are like my ties to Oliver if that makes any sense. Weird right? Most people would not find comfort in being around their husbands ex girlfriends.”

  
  


Ava shrugged off the praise, “No, not weird at all. I actually completely understand. I don’t know how much Laurel told you about that but I couldn’t have done it without Nyssa’s help. And as much as we hated each other in the beginning, she kind of grew on me and was almost nice to be around.” 

  
  


Felicity's eyebrows shot to the ceiling, “Laurel didn’t mention that part. You worked with Nyssa. Nyssa is probably the most jealous person I have ever met. I can’t exactly say she's my favorite person. But I’m going to have to get used to her. According to a version of my daughter from the future, Nyssa trains her everything she knows. I’m not terribly thrilled for when that time comes.”

  
  


“I take it that means your daughter is following in her father's footsteps.”

  
  


“Yeah she is. I’m going to worry about her all the time. But can you honestly blame her. I mean look around. This is the life we chose when we fell in love with them. And sure it’s filled with constant worry but it’s also absolutely amazing and unlike anything I’ve ever done. My daughter is going to grow up knowing her father sacrificed his life to save the world. She’s going to have Supergirl and all the Canaries at her birthday parties. These people are going to be her role models and she inevitably will want to be just like them.”

  
  


“You have a point there. The superhero life is pretty attractive. I never would have dreamed I’d be standing in Supergirl’s apartment about to play board games with all the big heroes.”

  
  


Felicity and Ava watched the heroes make a toast to each other before downing their respective shots. Ava watched Sara with a look of adoration. It was cool to see how Sara behaved with all her friends. From her playful attitude towards Supergirl, to her endearing relationship with Felicity. It was like seeing a whole different side of her girlfriend.

  
  


“Certainly not me. I was just a low level IT girl before I got swept up in all this.  But to tell you the truth, if I could go back, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

  
  


Ava smiled, “Me either.” Of course Ava hadn’t been involved in the superhero lifestyle near as long as Felicity had but she felt like she could understand. Ever since her and Sara had gotten together it had been a constant whirlwind of chaos. From one world ending scenario to the next. But as exasperated as she sometimes acted, deep down Ava knew that she loved every second of it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took so long but to make up for it I made it a little longer than usual. So first time writing smut and not going to lie it felt a little awkward to write so sorry if it's not great.


	8. Superfriends Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party continues and some juicy secrets are revealed.

Everyone was gathered around Kara’s living room table as they finished off a game of trivia. They had decided to split off into five teams of two: Maggie with Alex, Kara and Lena, Kate and Felicity, Barry with Iris, and lastly Ava and Sara. For the most part, the game was just between Lena and Ava. Ava killed the history and murder mystery section while Lena dominated every single science and tech related question. Kara, who was seated on the floor between Lena’s legs, would occasionally pop in for an entertainment question and then excitedly turn to high five a smiling Lena when she got it right. Nobody noticed, but every time this interaction occurred Kate would take another drink of her whisky and look the other way. Alex who was not used to this kind of competition and usually did amazing on game night was completely fed up and frustrated with her repetitive losses. 

  
  


Since team Kate and Felicity were so behind in points, Felicity had elected to be the question reader, “What was famous viking Leif Erikson’s nickname?”

  
  


Ava quickly hit the buzzer and blurted out, “Leif the Lucky!”

  
  


“Correct.”

  
  


Ava nudged Sara with her elbow, “Come on you could have got that one. I know you’ve been to the viking age, we literally went there together.”

  
  


“Well to tell you the truth, my attention was less on viking history and more on a certain time bureau agent that looked damn good in viking furs”, Sara winked.

  
  


"Frack Sara, keep it in your pants", Felicity faked a gagging sound before reading the next question, "What breed of dog is featured in the movie Marley and Me?”

  
  


Kara all but jumped off the ground and super sped her hand to the buzzer before yelling out “Labrador Retriever!” In her excitement she didn’t realize how much force she had put into it and had completely obliterated the buzzer as well as put a decent dent in the table. Kara immediately got embarrassed and turned beet red, “Sorry, puppies get me really excited.” Alex rolled her eyes while Lena tried to hide a giggle.

  
  


Barry stood up and stretched after nearly falling asleep from trivia. He got a mischievous glint in his eyes, “Okay let's play something juicy. Never have I ever with shots.”

  
  


“Oh my god Barry what are we, teenagers?”, Felicity scoffed. 

  
  


“Oh come on, don’t act like you don’t want to learn everybody's dirt!”, Kate replied already on her way to fill up her glass and fully onboard with the idea.

  
  


Barry tugged Felicity up off the couch by her hands, “Live at little Felicity. Ya know you wannaaaa.”

  
  


“You know what, you’re right. I think Oliver’s buzzkill nature must have rubbed off on me”, she laughed and grabbed a glass.

  
  


Once everyone was gathered around the kitchen island Barry started the game, “Okay let's start off easy. Never have I ever smoked weed.”

  
  


Kate, Sara, Ava, Alex, Maggie, Iris, and Lena took shots.

  
  


Sara looked at Ava incredulously, “You, miss straighten arrow, have smoked before?”

  
  


“Hey, being director of the time bureau was stressful. Sometimes I needed a little break, especially when you in your team were off causing me more work”, Ava shrugged it off.

  
  


“Okay okay, never have I ever gone a week without some world altering event”, Iris joked and proceeded to throw down her shot along with everyone else eliciting a chorus of “you have no idea” and “I feel that”.

  
  


Kara went next, “Never have I ever messed up time and history.”

  
  


“Hey that's targeting!”, Barry protested as he and Sara downed shots.

  
  


“What! I would never do such a thing!”, Kara feigned innocence.

  


“Never have I ever worn a leather suit”, Lena smartly commented. It was Lena’s goal to get Kara drunk. She had never even seen her tipsy before and wanted payback for all the times Kara had busted into her office and seen her nursing a glass of scotch.

  
  


“I’m glad I have high tolerance”, Sara muttered as she took her third shot in a row alongside the rest of the heroes with the addition of Ava and Alex.

  
  


Alex looked at her sister with a devious expression, “Never have I ever broken someone's foot at a dance.”

  
  


Kara took a shot and tried to defend herself through giggles as everyone stared at her in disbelief, “It was an ACCIDENT. I didn’t mean to step on his foot, I thought he was going to go the other way! It’s his fault for not knowing how to dance!”

  
  


“He was an 8th grade boy, of course he didn’t know how to dance!”, Alex fired back in tears from laughing so hard.

  
  


“Ya well how was I supposed to know that. On Krypton they taught us formal dancing in school.”

  
  


“Must be tough being a Kryptonian princess”, Maggie jested before her turn.

  
  


“Never have I ever been to another earth.”

  
  


Barry groaned before taking a shot, he didn’t want to admit it but he was starting to feel a little tipsy. Meanwhile, Kara, Sara, and Kate seemed to be doing just fine despite taking as many shots as he had.

  
  


Sara went next, “Never have I ever ever gotten back together with an ex.”

  


  


“Liar! You dated Oliver after Lian Yu for a little bit”, Felicity protested as she, Maggie, and Alex drained their glasses.

  
  


“One, you could hardly call that dating. And two, Oli wasn’t my ex, we just happened to have an extended hookup”, Sara attempted to weasel her way out of it.

  
  


“Sounds like real thin ice Lance”, Kate interjected. 

  
  


Ava tried to help her girl out by distracting the group, “Never have I ever had a one night stand.”

  
  


“Oh come on babe, that's cold. Whose team are you on”, Sara laughed as she took a shot. She almost spit out her drink laughing when she caught sight of Alex discretely trying to take her shot. 

  
  


Kate noticed that Kara hadn’t taken a shot and decided to grill her on it, “Ah come on Kara, you mean to tell me Supergirl’s never had a few sexual conquests! Is that why you shot me down that one night in Gotham. My offer still stands by the way”, she added with a wink.

  
  


Kara was stunned by the bluntness, “It’s just not my thing. I want to have a connection with someone before I...uh...do that. Erm, thanks though?”

  
  


Lena stared daggers at Kate while refilling her glass. She shifted closer to Kara who looked at her quizzically and flashed her one of the bright Kara ‘Sunshine’ Danvers smiles. 

  
  


Sara made an attempt to break the tension, “Damn Bats, way to throw yourself at every woman you see.”

  
  


Kate seemed unmoved by Sara’s comment and kept her gaze locked on Kara, “That's funny coming from the woman who slept her way through history.”

  
  


“OOOOOOOoooooo sick burn Kate!”, a tipsy Barry interjected, lightening the mood. 

  
  


Kate smirked and looked Kara up and down, “Never have I ever gotten rejected by someone I wanted.”

  
  


Kara blushed and immediately focused all her attention on her drink until she noticed Lena’s heart rate pick up. Lena was pissed and Kate had unknowingly made a new enemy. Kara put her hand on the small of Lena’s back and rubbed circles in an attempt to calm her down. Meanwhile, everyone else was suddenly focused on literally anything else than the awkward situation in front of them. 

  
  


Felicity decided to move on with the game to try and bring everything back to normal, “Never have I ever slept with someone in this room.”

  
  


Kara restrained herself from taking the shot out of respect for Lena because she didn’t know if Lena was ready to share their relationship yet. Her eyes widened as she watched Lena throw down the shot, eyes on Kate the whole time seemingly trying to assert some dominance. Kara shrugged and drank hers down as well hoping her sister didn’t notice. 

  
  


Kara wasn’t quite so lucky, Alex spit out her shot, “KARA DANVERS WHO HERE DID YOU SLEEP WITH AND NOT TELL ME?!”

  
  


Alex immediately looked at Sara who threw her arms up in surrender, “No no no don’t look at me. It wasn’t me.”

  
  


At that revelation Alex realized what was going on, “Oh my god. OH MY GOD! You two FINALLY hooked up! I thought it was never going to happen. Why didn’t you tell me!”

  
  


Kara got all giddy and wrapped her arm around Lena, “Well I guess now is as good a time as any. Lena and I are together. We were trying to keep it between us for awhile because we didn’t want it to be a big deal ya know with the media and all.”

  
  


Everyone expressed their happiness for the two with the exception of Kate who tried to hide her embarrassment by drinking more whiskey. Lena, wanting to rub salt in the wound as payback got on her tippy toes and gave Kara a peck on the cheek. The group decided to end the game there on a good note, as most everyone was feeling pretty buzzed from all the alcohol. 

  
  


Kara proudly ran into the next room and hauled out a karaoke machine. “So guys I know this isn't really a game but its super fun. After a long day me and my team like to go to the dive bar and sing karaoke so I figured why not bring the karaoke here! I’ll start, Barry will you sing with me?”

  
  


Barry recalled the time they were trapped in a weird musical universe and rushed over to grab a mic, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  
  


“Super friend!”, they both exclaimed excitedly.

  
  


Kara and Barry being the only ones with some real musical talent belted our line after line of the comical song earning laughter and applause. Afterwards, Alex dragged Maggie to the machine to attempt a Salt-N-Pepper song only to mumble most of the words but it was all in good fun. Ava and Sara sat close to one another on the couch watching their friends try their hand at singing.

  
  


“Your friendssss are funnnn. Thanksss for bringin’ me”, Ava slurred before taking another sip of her drink. 

  
  


Sara started laughing and looked her girlfriend in the eyes, “Are you drunk already Aves, I know we’ve had a lot but I didn’t think you were such a lightweight!”

  
  


“I am NOT drunk Lance. Just maybeeeeee I’m a bit sleepy is all”, Ava slowly drawled out.

  
  


“Okay babe, I’m going to take this away from you now and go get you some water”, Sara giggled a bit tipsy herself as she pried the class from Ava’s hands. She caught a whiff of the alcohol as she carried it away and it stopped her in her tracks. 

  
  


“Hey Ava, which bottle did you get this from?”, Sara calmly asked.

  
  


“The oneeeeee with the weird looking label in some…..different language”, Ava struggled to find the words she was looking for but nodded to herself when she believed she got them right.

  
  


A look of concern crossed Sara’s face, “Oh my god you drank Kara’s alien alcohol!”

  
  


Kara who had been listening in burst out laughing, “Oh Rao! She’s going to be so wasted. This one time Alex was stubborn and tried to keep up with me one night and tried a sip, she got SO drunk SO fast it was too funny. I had to carry her home.”

  
  


“Laugh all you want Kara, it was miserable! I was hungover for days! Worst experience of my life”, Alex chided unable to hide the giggle in her voice.

  
  


“Holy shit she drank like half a glass! Is she going to be okay?!”, Sara rushed over to Ava and began checking her over. 

  
  


Sara was swatted away weakly by her girlfriend, “Babeeeee stop mothering me. I’m fineeeeee.”

  
  


Ava’s eyes lit up and she snapped to attention, “Let’s do karaoke!”

  
  


By this point Barry and Kara couldn’t contain their laughter knowing exactly how hard the alien alcohol would hit Ava. Barry tried to speak through his laughter, “She’s gonna be fine. She just needs to sleep it off. But tomorrow is not going to be fun for her.”

  
  


Ava stood up shakily and started dancing around and pretending to hold the microphone. In her defense, she completely thought the music was playing and she was killing it as she started singing Juice at the chorus. Sara couldn’t help but laugh and started dancing and singing with her girlfriend. If Ava was going to look like a fool, then she’d get right up there with her and do it too. Plus nobody there was going to judge. When Ava finished singing (somewhere after she had sung the chorus three times in a row) she began to stumble around. Sara moved to catch her girlfriend and steady her. 

  
  


“Okay now that’s over”, Sara paused to laugh, “I think I better get this one home before she passes out.”

  
  


“Whaaaaaaaat, we’re leavin’ already? But we just got here”, Ava protested half asleep on Sara’s shoulder. 

  
  


“We’ve been here for hours Aves. Let me get you home and take you to bed”, Sara said while supporting most of Ava’s weight.

  
  


Ava’s eyes opened back up and darkened, “Ohhhhhh I see now. You just wanna take me back to the bed and bow chicka wow woooooow.”

  
  


Sara, along with everyone else who heard it burst out laughing. Even the sullen Kate couldn’t hold her laughter in, “Real classy Lance!”

  
  


“Wow okay, I actually cannot wait to tell you what you just said when you’re sober. Say your goodbyes babe.”

  
  


“Ughhhhhh you’re such a party pooper. Byeeeee everyone. Was nice to meet you alllll”, Ava got out before falling asleep and being hoisted into Sara’s arms bridal style.

  
  


“Thanks for everything Kara. Glad we could all finally have a night off after everything. I’ll see you guys around.”

  
  


Sara opened up a portal into her and Ava’s bedroom. Sara lovingly set her girlfriend down on the bed and undressed her before pulling the blankets up. She was about to turn to go to the kitchen and grab a bottle of water and some advil for tomorrow morning when Ava grabbed her wrist. 

  
  


“Heyyyyy where do you think you’re goin’, it’s cuddle time.”

  
  


Sara leaned down and planted a kiss on Ava’s forehead, “Okay okay, I’m just going to grab something real quick and then I will be right back I promise.”

  
  


Half of Sara’s words fell on deaf ears as Ava was already blacked out once again. Sara smiled at her adorable sleeping girl before going to grab Ava’s future hangover relief. Sara was beyond happy with the way tonight went. Ava seemed to get along great with all her friends and even maybe made some friends of her own. She could totally see Ava and Lena hanging out together at some point in the future, they seemed to really connect. Everything was coming together for Sara. Ava had been introduced to and accepted by Laurel, the Legends, and all her closest friends. Well not that it really mattered if she had their approval. Nothing was going to change the way she felt about Ava. But it was nice to have their support. All that was left was for Ava to meet her Dad. Sara was positive that he would love Ava. In fact he would probably make some joke that Ava was way too good for her. To be honest, Sara always felt a little bit guilty introducing Ava to everyone. While she wanted to share everything about her life with Ava, she couldn’t help but wonder if it upset Ava that she couldn’t do the same. Ava’s friends, besides the ones she shared with Sara, were limited to pretty much just Gary if you even counted that as a friendship. And as Sara had learned earlier, Ava had no family, just the two sad excuses for actors that had broken very easily before Sara. Well either way, if Ava cared, she did a great job of concealing it. Sara sat the water and medicine down on Ava’s nightstand before taking her clothes off and snuggling in under the covers behind Ava. She wrapped an arm around Ava’s waist and inhaled the familiar soft scent of Ava she had grown accustomed to. The smell of home. Sara couldn’t imagine her life without this. Without falling asleep next to Ava every night and traversing all throughout time with her by her side.

  
  


“Goodnight my love”, Sara whispered before succumbing to sleep.

  
  


\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Ava was woken up by an intense headache and immediately grabbed her head. She tried to speak but her mouth was so dry she couldn’t get any words out. She opened her eyes for a second to discover there was already a bottle of water and some advil waiting for her on her nightstand. Ava sat up too quickly and was overcome by dizziness. She leaned back against the bed frame and blindly reached for the water. When she finally made contact with the bottle she chugged the whole thing and water had never tasted so good to her in her entire life. She shook a few advil out cringing at the faint sound they made coming out of the bottle before taking them. Ava slowly turned to face her sleeping girlfriend and thank her for being a godsend and leaving that stuff out for her. She tried opening her eyes again and caught a glimpse of some light slipping in through the curtains.

  
  


It felt as if someone had pointed the most powerful laser in the words right into her eyes, “What the FUCK why is it so fucking bright in here!?”

  
  


Ava’s complaints awoke Sara, “Ah, good morning sunshine. How ya feeling?”

  
  


“SHHHHHHHH Fuck, Sara stop yelling!”, Ava hissed out covering her face with the blanket in an attempt to escape the light.

  
  


“Sweetheart, I wasn’t yelling but if it helps you I will whisper”, Sara had a pretty good idea of how intense Ava’s hangover must be.

  
  


“I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. No, scratch that, make it a million trucks. What the fuck happened?”

  


“Well what do you last remember?”, Sara asked while pulling herself out of bed and walking into the bathroom to make Ava a cold compress.

  
  


“Ummmmm, I remember playing Never Have I ever and that whole thing between Kara and Lena. Everything after that is…...nonexistent”, Ava raked her memories but it hurt her to think.

  
  


Sara laughed and pulled back the covers to lay the cool towel on Ava’s forehead before crawling back into bed with her.

  
  


“It’s probably better off if it stays like that, my love.”

  
  


“What why? Oh shit. Did I do something bad? Please tell me I didn’t embarrass myself in front of all your friends. How did I even get that drunk? I’ve never been blackout drunk before in my life”, Ava groaned.

  
  


“Well for starters, you accidentally poured yourself a glass of Kara’s alien alcohol. You know the kind specially designed to get superhumans drunk. And you don't need to worry babe, everyone was pretty tipsy and just having a good time. Nobody is going to judge you for your singing”, Sara moved to gently kiss Ava on the cheek and down her jaw. 

  
  


“I WAS SIN….”, Ava had to pause because her outburst gave her an intense migraine, “I sang in front of everyone?”

  
  


“Sure did. I think you killed it by the way. You could have a career in music”, Sara teased as Ava’s jaw dropped. She was absolutely appalled. Ava knew she was by no means a singer. She could only imagine how bad it was.

  
  


“I can NEVER show my face to them again. My life is over. Kill me now.”

  
  


“Oh come on Aves it really wasn’t that bad. Everyone else got up there and did some poor karaoke performances, well with the exception of Barry and Kara who are oddly enough really good singers. But the point is everyone was just up there having fun. Besides, you know I couldn’t just leave you up there all by yourself. I came and did a duet with you.”

  
  


Ava fought the pain and opened her eyes to look Sara in the eyes, “You really got up there with me? And you better tell the truth so help me god Lance I will go back in time and re-watch it myself!”

  
  


“Of course I did ya goober. It was actually pretty fun. And let me tell you, your dancing skills are”, Sara smiled and made a chef's kiss gesture.

  
  


“Well that was really sweet of you. Thanks for not letting me make a fool of myself alone. I love you”, Ava moved to kiss Sara but was pushed away when their lips were just a few inches from touching.

  
  


Sara laughed at the look of confusion on Ava’s face, “I love you so much babe but there is no way I’m kissing you until you brush your teeth. I think I might get drunk just from smelling your breath.”

  
  


Ava couldn’t help but giggle too, “Shut up and kiss me you ass.”

  
  


“You’re lucky I love you”, Sara mumbled before touching her lips to Ava’s gently.

  
  


“I’m very lucky.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is a little late. (I feel like I say that every time lol). I got sucked in by the Harley Quinn animated series. I highly recommend it, definitely one of my favorite shows.
> 
> Songs:  
> Super Friend - Melissa Benoist & Grant Gustin  
> Push It - Salt-N-Pepper  
> Juice - Lizzo


	9. Encore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Date night is ruined by another mission. What a surprise.

Sara was lounging lazily on the kitchen bench watching her girlfriend make dinner. She smiled as Ava pulled her up into that trademark time bureau bun and started swaying to the gentle music coming from her phone as she sauteed some vegetables in the pan. Despite technically being from the future, Ava enjoyed older music. She liked the way each song told a story without any effects, just the instruments and the singer. Ava could feel eyes on her and looked over her shoulder to catch Sara staring at her lovingly with a dopey grin on her face.

  
  


_ You’re just too good to be true _

_ Can’t take my eyes off of you _

_ You’d be like heaven to touch _

_ I wanna hold you so much _

  
  


“What is it ya goober?”, Ava asked. She always loved using that dorky name for Sara in private because she knew she was the sole person who could get away with using it. 

  
  


“Nothing, I’m just admiring my absolutely gorgeous and perfect girl”, Sara pushed herself off the bench and leaned on the counter next to Ava before continuing her gazing. 

_ Pardon the way that I stare _

_ There’s nothin’ else to compare _

_ The sight of you leaves me weak _

_ There are no words left to speak _

  
  


“Stop looking at me like that you creep”, Ava jokes, cheeks flushed from the attention.

  
  


“I can’t help it you’re just too good to be true, can’t take my eyes off of you”, Sara sang along with the music before wrapping her arms around the taller woman and resting her head on Ava’s shoulder. 

  
  


“You are such a dork”, Ava laughed as she melted into Sara’s gentle touch. 

  
  


Sara swung around to Ava’s front and pecked her on the lips, “Yeah but I’m your dork and you love me.”

  
  


Ava leaned in for another kiss, not satisfied with just one, “I love you ya dork.”

  
  


“Want help with anything?”, Sara offered, feeling a bit guilty that Ava was doing all the cooking. She knew she wasn’t the best cook but she figured she could at least do something simple.

  
  


“Oh really? The girl whose cooking sole cooking experience is limited to asking Gideon to make something”, Ava laughed. 

  
  


As if on cue, Sara’s phone rang with a call from Gideon. She sighed and pulled away from Ava before reluctantly answering and putting it on speaker.

  
  


“Gideon, whats up?”

  
  


“Sorry to interrupt, Captain Lance. But it seems there is an encore that must be addressed now.”

  
  


Sara frowned and looked at Ava with sadness who just waved it off, “It’s fine babe go take care of it, I’ll finish cooking and put this up for us to eat later then meet you there.”

  
  


Sara was thankful that her girlfriend was so understanding but felt bad for bailing on their night in, “Are you sure? I can probably send the team to take care of it, they’ll be okay without me.”

  
  


Gideon interrupted before Ava could respond, “Actually Captain, the only members of the crew present on the ship right now are Miss Tomaz and Mr Rory.”

  
  


Ava put down her wooden spoon and moved to wrap her girlfriend in a hug before planting a sweet kiss on her forehead, “It’s fine, I mean it okay? Now go, your team needs their fearless leader.”

  
  


“God you are so incredibly perfect, what did I do to deserve you”, Sara mumbled as she nestled into her lover's touch.

  
  


“Hmmm, maybe being the savior of the universe for one”, Ava joked before returning to her cooking vegetables. 

  
  


“Okay Gideon, tell Z and Mick to get ready and I’ll be there in a minute”, Sara directed the AI before hanging up. She walked back over to the stove and tried to steal a piece of grilled chicken out of the pan Ava wasn’t stirring before she got smacked on the hand with a wooden spoon.

  
  


“Nuh uh, you don’t get to try it, tell I’m done”, Ava fought the urge to laugh at the bewildered look on Sara’s face from being hit with the spoon.

  
  


“Meanie”, Sara teased before leaning in for a kiss, “I’ll take care of this really quick I promise and then I’ll be back in time for dinner. Don’t worry about coming. Z, Mick and I got it covered. You just stay home and relax alright?”

  
  


“Mmmmmm okay fine. But be safe and call me if you need any backup please”, Ava said in a serious tone. She trusted Sara would take care of anything, especially with Zari there to be a voice of reason. And to be honest she still felt a little crummy from that horrid hangover from hell a few days ago. That alien booze made her never want to see another drop of alcohol in her life. 

  
  


“Always for you, I love you”, Sara called out as she opened a portal to the Waverider.

  
  


“I love you too”, Ava replied as Sara stepped through. She felt a little uneasy, last time Sara went off on a mission without her she had said those same reassuring words and nearly been wiped from existence. Ava shook her head and chalked the weird feeling up to after effects from the alien alcohol. 

  
  


\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“Okay Gideon what's the situation?”, Sara asked a bit annoyed, eager to get this mission done and over with so she could get home to Ava. Sometimes she wished she had a normal job. One that didn’t require her to be on call 24/7. Sara wouldn’t admit it to her crew for fear of being made fun of but she wanted to settle down with Ava and start being more domestic. Fortunately, Ava did understand how important protecting the timeline was and would never get frustrated with Sara for having to leave, but it didn’t stop Sara from feeling guilty about it. And realistically, Sara knew she wasn’t meant for an average job. She still remembered how hard it was for her to control herself while working at Sink Shower and Stuff. 

  
  


“Well Captain, it seems that notorious murder Ted Bundy has been reincarnated in the present year and set loose upon Los Angeles, California. He is targeting younger women who may not be as familiar with his looks.”

  
  


Sara rolled her eyes, of course the one time she tells Ava not to come it’s a famous serial killer encore. Ava would be all over this. She got a smile on her face thinking how if her girlfriend were here she’d probably be buzzing with excitement and spitting out all kinds of facts about Bundy.

  
  


Mick chugged down his beer before slamming it down on the console, “Let’s go grab pretty boy and send him back to hell”

  
  


“Alright easy enough, I’ll go in as bait and then you two follow me out. Wait til he leads us back to where he’s hiding out so we can make sure he doesn’t have anyone there already. Then you guys come in and we’ll get him by any means necessary”, Sara instructed.

  
  


“Gideon, take us to LA.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Sara, dressed in a tight white dress with a plunging neckline sat at the bar that Bundy had frequented that past couple days. Zari and Mick were sitting at a nearby booth nursing their own drinks and scanning the room for any sign of Bundy. Suddenly a man in an older looking suit entered and made his way to the bar before sitting close to Sara. Sara could feel his eyes on her, roaming up and down her body and tried to hold in a cringe. 

  
  


He switched to the stool right next to Sara before offering her a charming smile, “Now what’s a girl as beautiful as you doing here all alone?”

  
  


Sara finished off her drink and responded in a sweet voice, “It doesn’t seem like I’m alone now, now does it?”

  
  


Bundy let out a smooth chuckle, “No, I suppose it doesn't. I’m Ted, what’s your name gorgeous?”

  
  


“Sara”, She extended her hand to shake his but instead cringed when he grabbed and and brought it to his lips for a kiss. Sara noticed an odd reddish tented ring on his hand that looked as if it contained swirling red clouds inside. 

  
  


“It’s a pleasure to meet you Sara”, he waved for the bartender to come over, “I’ll have a Gin and Tonic, and for the Lady?”

  
  


“Whiskey. Neat.”

  
  


Bundy arched his eyebrow, “Wow, beautiful and good taste. I don’t see many women who drink straight whiskey.”

  
  


“Oh, and do you see a lot of women?”, Sara countered without sparing him so much as a glance. 

“None quite like you”, he enjoyed the chase Sara was giving him. 

  
  


“I’ll take that as a compliment”, Sara felt like she was being a bit of a bitch but she couldn’t help it. She was supposed to be at home having a nice dinner with her girlfriend, NOT getting hit on by some cocky serial killer.

  
  


He flashed her a charming smile, “Oh it most definitely is.”

  
  


Sara’s eyes were drawn to that ring on his finger. He followed her eyes and to it, “See something you like?”

  
  


“That ring, I’ve never seen anything like it before. It looks like it’s moving”, Sara could swear there was something swirling about inside the band and it made her uneasy.

  
  


He tried to deflect her attention off his ring by placing his other hand on the skin of her thigh, “Oh that’s probably just the lighting baby. It’s just a gift from a important friend of mine.”

  
  


Sara tried her hardest not to show her disgust at his advances and pulled her leg away. 

  
  


He was surprised by her change in demeanor. Most girls would already be on the hook by now, “Playing hard to get are we? That’s alright baby, I like my girls with some fight in them.”

  
  


“Well you’ll be glad to know I have a hell of a lot of fight in me”, Sara mumbled under her breath. 

  
  


He rested the hand with the ring on it on Sara’s hand before trailing it up her arm, “I’ll have you know Sara darling, in the end I always get my way.”

  
  


Sara noticed the ring darken for a moment before feeling like she was drunk. “Oh I'll bet you do. A handsome man such as you can get whatever he wants.”

  
  


Zari was watching the encounter and was creeped out to say the least, “Whoa Sara that’s a little forward even for you. And are you really just going to let him feel you up like that?”

  
  


Sara inconspicuously put her elbow on the counter and rested her head on her palm in order to turn her comms off. She stared longingly into Bundy’s eyes as if she was in some sort of trance.

  
  


“Sara what the hell! Did you just turn your comms off?”, Zari spoke on a dead line. She smacked Mick to grab his attention, “Mick are you seeing this? I think something is wrong with Sara.”

  
  


Mick proceeded to chug down his fifth beer, “Nah boss is just luring him in.”

  
  


Zari was unnerved by the situation but kept her cover and waited for Sara to move. Sara’s attitude had completely changed. She was giggling at everything Bundy said and had her hands all over him. She was no longer flinching away from his touches and was practically sitting in his lap. Zari couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. She watched as the pair stood up and Bundy slipped his arm around Sara’s waist before guiding her out of the bar. 

  
  


“Let’s go Mick”, Zari urged while Mick stood up with a smile. He was always up for a good beat down. The pair followed at a distance and watched as Bundy guided Sara into his truck, touching her way more than necessary. He then moved to get in as well, once he was in he turned to Sara and grabbed her firmly by the neck before pulling her in for a kiss.

  
  


Zari gagged watching it, “I’m soooo glad I didn’t have to be the bait. But also, is it just me or did Sara seem into that?”

  
  


Mick who was usually unfazed seemed a bit confused, “Boss must be a really good actor.”

  
  


“Yeah or that creep slipped something in her drink”, Zari replied as she kept an eye on the two while Mick hot wired a car for them. 

  
  


“No way the boss would get roofied. She notices everything.”

  
  


“I don’t know Mick, something just seems really off.”

  
  


Zari got in the passenger seat and Mick drove after Bundy and Sara, trailing a safe distance. After about 20 minutes of driving Bundy pulled over at a corner store and took Sara inside with him. Sara was hanging onto his arm and looking at him very flirtatiously. Zari and Mick exchanged a look of confusion but Mick shrugged it off, “Maybe he needs some rubbers.”

  
  


“Gross! What the fuck Mick!”, Zari protested, trying not to throw up at the idea of Sara and Bundy getting it on. The two waited outside in the car for around twenty minutes without seeing Sara or Bundy. 

  
  


“What’s taking so long?”, Mick growled impatiently.

  
  


“I don’t know, something seems wrong. I’m going to go in and see what's going on”, Zari answered before going inside. She quickly walked past each isle and found no signs of her Captain. She then noticed that the Store had another entrance on the other side and realized what happened. She hurried out of the store and ran to the car. 

  
  


“Fuck shes gone! There was another entrance that we couldn’t see. He must have noticed us following him and got paranoid”, Zari panicked trying to think of what to do next. 

  
  


“What's the big deal? Can’t you just do your hacker thing and track her comms?”, Mick seemed unconcerned. He knew that Sara was very capable of handling herself and could take care of Bundy by herself. He didn’t seem like the kind to have any real fighting skill, Sara would have him on his ass the second he tried something. 

  
  


“Yeah I COULD if someone didn't turn off her FUCKING COMMS!”, Zari exclaimed. Zari knew something was wrong. He must have done something to Sara. There could be no other explanation why Sara would be all over him and be ignoring her team. He couldn’t have drugged her, Zari would have noticed it. And she didn’t start acting weird until he grabbed her arm. It suddenly hit Zari, that weird ring. That had to be his gift from hell. It must have some sort of charming powers. It was all speculation, but it’s all Zari had to go off of.

  
  


“Okay okay, they couldn’t have gotten too far on foot so they should be in one of the houses around here. We just got to figure out which one”, Zari proposed as Mick stepped on the gas and they started speeding through the neighborhoods looking for any sign of Sara. 

  
  


Mick was getting highly annoyed with this plan and a bit worried, “We’re never going to find her like this. It’s been too long. We haven’t seen her in forty minutes. Who knows what that bastard is doing to her!”

  
  


Zari was equally as distressed, “We need backup. I’m calling Ava. She’s got that weird fascination with all things murder so shes definitely our best bet.”

  
  


\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Ava was waiting at the dinner table with two plates of food out and a bottle of wine. She sighed and pushed the food on her plate around. It had grown cold by now. She couldn’t be mad at Sara, after all she did tell her to go. But she couldn't help but feel saddened by having her date night ruined. Sara had gotten her hopes up when she said she’d be back in time to eat. Ava put both plates in the fridge and grabbed her phone to check and see if there was a message from Sara. Usually if she was going to be long, she would make sure to let her girlfriend know so that she wouldn’t worry. Discouraged at having no new messages, she opened a portal to the Waverider and stepped through to find it empty. 

  
  


“Good evening Miss Sharpe”, an ever cheerful Gideon greeted.

  
  


“Gideon, could you get me a line on Sara?”

  
  


“Captain Lance’s comms have been disabled.”

  
  


“Where is she at?”

  
  


“I’m afraid the status of Captain Lance is unknown at this point in time. Her last known whereabouts were Los Angeles 2019.”

  
  


Ava’s heart sank at Gideon’s response but she knew her girlfriend could handle herself and there must be some logical explanation as to why her comms were off. Her phone started ringing and she sighed with relief when she saw Zari’s contact pop up.

  
  


“Z hey, can you put Sara on the phone please?

  
  


“Soooooooo about that. Sara may or may not have been taken by Ted Bundy and we don’t know where she is. We need your help. We figured your knowledge on all things murdery might come in handy.”

  
  


“Pull over, I’m opening a portal to your location now”, too worried about Sara to get excited about meeting Ted Bundy. She opened a portal next to their car and got in the backseat.

  
  


“Rory, keep driving. What's the situation?”, Ava asked. She pulled out a pocket version of the Prognosticator and started waving it around looking for a signal.

  
  


“The encore is Ted Bundy, Sara sat at the bar as bait which might I add he fell for hook line and sinker. I was pretty far away so I didn’t get a good look but he had some sort of ring. I think it was what he was reincarnated with to collect more souls. Anyways everything was fine until he touched Sara with it then all the sudden she changed. She immediately turned off her comms and was all over him, sooooo gross by the way. Anyways we followed them out and trailed them until they stopped at a corner store. They went inside and after we didn’t see them for fifteen minutes I went in to look around. Bundy must have known we were trailing him and he went out a different entrance. We’ve been driving around looking for any sign of her but we’ve got nothing.”

  
  


“How long has it been since you’ve seen her?”, Ava asked, growing frustrated.

  
  


“Ummmmmm, about an hour”, Zari mumbled.

  
  


“AN HOUR! Why did you two not call me sooner. Fuck, he usually doesn’t wait too long to make the kill and if she’s under some kind of spell…...Fuck!”, Ava exclaimed exasperated.

  
  


Zari could see Ava being overcome by anger and worry, “Hey hey, it’s okay Ava. We’ll find her. She’ll be okay.”

  
  


As Mick turned down the next street the prognosticator started beeping. Mick slowed down so Ava could narrow it down to which house. 

  
  


“Pull over, it’s one of these”, Ava announced.The prognosticator led them to an older style home with blinds pulled over the windows. The trio split up and searched the perimeter for the best way in. Ava and Zari came around the corner just in time to see Mick about to punch through a window.

  
  


“WHOA MICK HOLD UP”, Zari attempted to whisper loudly, “We can’t just go in here guns blazin’. Especially since Sara is under his control and we don’t know where she is.” 

  
  


Ava’s logical side appealed to this idea but at the same side she was trying very hard not to just bust through the door herself. She knew Bundy’s M.O. and would do anything to prevent that from happening to Sara. Mick caught sight of a garden gnome near the front door and remembered something Nate taught him.

  
  


“Mick what are you doing?”, Zari asked watching Mick walk right up near the front door. Mick stomped on the gnome under his boot shattering it then picked up a silver key with a smile. 

  
  


“Nice work Rory. Okay we go in and find them. Don’t let Bundy touch you with that ring no matter what. Z, you pin him to the wall with your totem. Mick, burn his hand or something to try and get rid of that ring. Try and knock him out so we can take him back to the ship for John to deal with later. I’m going to get Sara out of there and make sure she’s okay. Sound good?”, Ava dished out the orders in an unforgiving tone. 

  
  


“Got it Missus Captain”, Mick exclaimed, always happy to use his gun. 

  
  


“Please be okay”, Ava whispered to herself. Hoping that they weren’t too late and Sara would still be alive and kicking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song:  
> Can't Take My Eyes off You - Frankie Valli
> 
> Had a really hard time trying to come up with a mission and this is what I ended up with. Not 100% good with it but it’s whatever, struggled with this way more than I thought I would. Also just pretend the prognosticator works like a tracking beacon for encores.


	10. Rescue Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava leads Sara's rescue mission and deals with the fallout.

Ava silently slipped the key into the front door and pushed the door in slowly trying to prevent any noise. She raised her gun and took point with Zari and Mick in back weapons ready. Somewhere in the house Ava heard a door open and footsteps on the creaky wooden floor. She gestured for Mick and Zari to hide behind the wall with her and wait. Bundy made his way to the kitchen whistling a tune on his way. Any excitement Ava might have had for seeing Ted Bundy in person was completely smothered by her concern for Sara. She listened to him grab a bottle and a glass. She heard a shaking noise and figured he must be mixing himself a drink before he returned to Sara. Because of Ava’s extensive murderer knowledge, she knew Bundy enjoyed having his way with his victims after the kill. Her stomach dropped as she realized him leaving Sara unattended couldn’t be a good thing. 

  
  


“You two, go deal with him. I need to get to Sara now”, Ava whispered, unable to hide the waver in her voice. She left the two alone and snuck down the hallway, careful not to make a sound. She spotted an open door and peeked inside only to find it empty. She paled at the sight of an array of knives on the bed. One of which had a crimson red streak on the tip of the blade. She noticed a few droplets of blood on the floor that must have dripped off the knife. She ran her fingers through her hair, stressed at the sight. Ava heard the sound of a scuffle in the other room but couldn’t be bothered to care as she followed the blood trail down the hall. It led to a closed door which she wasted no time in kicking down. 

She found Sara laying in a puddle of blood in the tub with one arm chained to the towel rack. The wrist in the tub had a deep gash down it and she appeared to have a stab wound in her abdomen but it was hard to tell with all the deep red soaking through the white of her dress. She was paler than usual and appeared to be unconscious.

  
  


Ava knelt by the tub, and picked Sara’s limp head up with her hand, “Fuck! Sara baby, I’m right here. I’m sorry it took so long. Can you open those gorgeous eyes of yours for me please?”

  
  


She tried shaking her awake to no avail. Ava put her fingers to Sara’s neck to check for a pulse. It was very faint, but it was there. 

  
  


She let out a sigh of relief but she knew she had to act fast or Sara wouldn’t last much longer. “Sara, I’m going to need you to hold on just a little longer for me, okay? I’m going to get you out of here and back to the ship and Gideon will get you fixed up in no time. Just stay with me please”, she managed to speak through her tears. 

Ava nearly felt her heart stop beating at the site of all the blood draining out of Sara’s body. She looked around the room frantically for anything to stop the bleeding. Her eyes settled on a hand towel resting on the towel rack and she ripped it off quickly before tying in on to Sara’s wrist. Ava reluctantly turned away from her unconscious girlfriend and directed her attention to the chain preventing her from carrying Sara to safety. She tugged on it a few times but it was secured well to the bar.

  
  


“Fuck it, I don’t have time for this”, Ava mumbled under her breath as she backed up against the opposite wall before delivering a hard kick to one side of the bar. The rack ripped away from the drywall and clattered against the tile floor. 

  
  


Ava returned to her position at Sara’s side and slid her arms underneath the smaller girl’s body. She carefully lifted Sara up bridal style and tried not to think about the warm liquid running down her shirt. She ran out into the living room to see Mick with an unconscious Bundy slung over his shoulder and Zari shoving the ring in her pocket.

  
  


Zari startled at the sound of Ava approaching and looked like she might faint when she saw the state of Sara, “Holy fuck, that’s a lot of blood!”

  
  


Mick was silent and had what was potentially tears forming in his eyes, “Is she...you know?”

  
  


Ava tried her best to add confidence to her voice, “She’s still here, but barely. We need to get her to Gideon RIGHT NOW!”

  
  


Zari immediately opened a portal to the bridge which Ava was immediately running through before it was fully opened. Ava made it to the medbay in record time and gently sat Sara in the seat before hooking her up to all the necessary cords. Ava held on to Sara’s hand and nervously waited for Gideon to work her magic.

  
  


“Miss Sharpe, I must ask you to remove your hand from Captain Lance. I’m afraid her heart has stopped beating. I’m going to need to send electrical pulses into her body”, Gideon asked in a much more serious tone than usual.

  
  


Ava watched in horror as each jolt rocked Sara’s body, not noticing that the team had gathered around the entrance. Ava had gone into a state of shock between Gideon’s words that Sara’s heart had stopped beating and the silence of the heart rate monitor with each jolt. She felt a tear track down her cheek and moments later a warm hand on her shoulder but she couldn’t be bothered to care. All she could do was stare at Sara’s lifeless form. 

  
  


“Please don’t leave me”, Ava whispered. As if Sara had heard her girlfriend’s request, a spike appeared on the otherwise flat heart rate monitor. Ava watched Sara’s heart rate return to normal feeling as if she looked away for even a second it would disappear. She heard some of the team sigh in relief but she still hadn’t paid any attention to their presence. She didn’t care. All she cared about was Sara’s well being. By now, Gideon had patched up all of her wounds and given her a blood transfusion. Ava wanted to reach out but was scared to touch her girlfriend for fear that Gideon would tell her to move away quickly once again. 

  
  


As if the AI could read minds Gideon announced, “Captain Lance’s condition has now stabilized. She suffered substantial blood loss and her body will likely need some time to recover.”

  
  


“Thank you Gideon”, Ava said shakily. Ava returned her hand to Sara’s and traced lazy circles on her hand with her thumb. She leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her lovers forehead before settling back in the chair beside her bed. 

  
  


“Uh, we’ll leave you two alone. Thanks for bringing her back Ava”, Nora broke the silence as she ushered the team out of the med bay. She figured Ava would be pretty emotionally raw from today and thought she might like some alone time. “If you need anything, you know where to find me”, she added before the door slid shut behind her.

  
  


Ava was thankful for Nora reading the room and getting everyone out. She took the opportunity to ask Gideon the question she had been dreading, "Gideon, is there any sign that he...that he did anything to her?"

"There is no traces to suspect any such actions."

Ava let out the breath she didn't know she was holding at Gideon's answer. At least she had gotten there in time to prevent him from having his way with her. Despite this, she felt a small surge of frustration well up inside of her. She was angry at Sara for going in alone and for Z and Mick letting go on so long. She was angry at herself for letting Sara go without her. Deep down she knew she was being irrational about it. They had no way of knowing that their encore would be able to take control of Sara. This is what she signed up for when she started dating a superhero. She knew she couldn’t babysit Sara all the time. Ava couldn’t get her mind off of the thought that if she had shown up any later than she did, Sara would be gone forreal. She drove herself insane with the thoughts until she fell asleep scrunched up in the small chair. 

  
  


\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  


Ava woke up hours later still feeling tired and with a horrible ache in her back from the way she slept. She smiled at her sleeping girlfriend and kissed the back of Sara’s hand.

  
  


“I’ll be right back sleepyhead”, she whispered before trying to stretch out her body on the way to the fabricator. She had Gideon whip up two coffees for them and stopped by Sara’s room to grab a book before returning to the med bay. Sara was still asleep when she arrived so she sat the coffee on the table opting to let her get her rest. Ava sipped on her coffee and tried to focus on the book she had brought but instead found her attention on Sara. She was studying Sara’s face. The way she looked so peaceful in her sleep. She committed each individual freckle to memory, each strand of shiny golden hair. She felt overwhelming love for the girl lying before her. She put her book aside, content to admire the beauty that was Sara Lance until she was interrupted by the med bay door sliding open and a gentle knock on the wall. 

  
  


“Mind if I come in?”, Nora asked softly so as not to disturb Sara. 

  
  
  


“Sure”, Ava smiled. Ava had grown close with Nora after the whole incident in the Time Bureau prison cell. They had really bonded over whose life was worse and she had felt herself develop a deeper connection with the girl. 

  
  


“How's she doing?”, Nora asked as she pulled a chair up next to Ava’s. 

  
  


“Fine, just waiting on her to wake up. Might be awhile, you know this one likes her sleep”, Ava joked. 

  
  


Nora directed her attention to Ava with a slightly concerned look, “And how are you? You look tired”

  
  


“Ahhh, such a nice way of telling me I look like shit. No need to say it, I already know. I just wanted to be here for her when she wakes up. Then I’ll go get some rest, I promise.”

  
  


“That’s sweet of you but you didn’t answer my question, Ava.”

  
  


Ava let out a deep sigh and looked at the floor, “I don’t know. I think I’m fine, or at least I will be when she wakes up and gives me that cheesy smile to try and get herself out of trouble. It’s just I thought I really lost her this time. The way I found her....it was a lot. When I saw her, I didn't even know if she was still alive. And I can’t stop thinking that if I got there a second later, she’d be gone. I shouldn’t have waited so long. I should have just gone with her. I can’t help but feel that this is all my fault.”

  
  


Nora nodded her head in understanding, “I’m sorry you had to see her like that. Judging for the state of your clothes it wasn’t a pretty sight. But Ava, it wasn’t your fault. You had no way of knowing what was going to happen. Who’s to say you being there would have changed anything. Maybe you both would have been affected. You can’t dwell on the what ifs, it’ll just drive you crazy, All that matters is that you’re both here now.”

  
  


“I suppose you’re right. She’s okay and that's what counts.”

  
  


Ava looked down at her clothes and took in the dried blood stains. Nora didn’t miss the frown that crossed Ava’s face as she looked herself over. 

  
  


“Why don’t you go take a shower and get some clean clothes. I’ll stay here and watch over her and I’ll come get you if she wakes up?”, Nora offered.

  
  


Ava looked as if she was having an inner debate inside her head but logic finally won, “I guess it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for her to wake up and see me drenched in her own blood, huh? Okay, but I’ll be super quick. Thanks. Not just for keeping an eye on her, but for easing my troubles. You’re the best.”

  
  


“It’s no big deal, that’s just what family does”, Nora replied, pleased with the small smile the word brought to Ava’s face. 

  
  


“Family, yeah, thanks”, Ava mumbled awkwardly before backing out of the room and making her way to Sara’s room. She grabbed a pair of clothes she always left in Sara’s closet for when she stayed over. As she turned to leave, her eye caught on one of Sara’s hoodies messy thrown on the floor and she picked it up too, resuming her journey to the communal bathroom. Mick was waiting in line with a towel slung over his shoulder. Ava could have sworn his eyes went wide for a second at the sight of her. 

  
  


He turned to the door and knocked impatiently before yelling in his rough voice, “Hey pretty boy! Get out, Missus Boss Lady needs the room.”

  
  


Mick gestured for Ava to cut in front of him. Ava raised an eyebrow at Mick’s uncharacteristic behavior, “You didn’t have to do that Rory.”

  
  


He just shrugged and leaned against the wall in silence. Normally Mick was all about himself and the thought of him giving up his place in the bathroom line for Ava was laughable. Ava assumed she either looked absolutely horrendous or Mick was feeling guilty for not asking for backup sooner. Her thought process was interrupted as Nate popped out of the bathroom, still messing with his hair. 

  
  


“The porcelain throne awaits you, my queen”, he joked and made an extravagant show out of bowing and gesturing into the bathroom. 

  
  


“Gross”, Ava chuckled and made her way inside. She paused to look at herself in the mirror. She did look bad. She looked tired and her hair was a mess from the way she fell asleep. To top the whole look off, her clothes had a chilling amount of dried blood on them. She couldn’t believe she left them on all night long. She had even gotten Sara changed into something clean and more comfortable, but neglected to do the same for herself. She chalked it up to being too tired and too worried to care or notice. She couldn’t wait until her girlfriend woke up and she could take her home where the two could get some well deserved rest. Having enough of staring at her sad complexion, she stripped of her clothes and stepped under the lukewarm stream of water. She stared at the red tinted water going down the drain as the blood that had seeped through her clothes washed away. Ava braced her hands against the wall and closed her eyes, letting the water run down her face, as wishing it could wash away the memory of last night. She tried to think of the happiness she felt before Sara had left. The way they were singing and dancing around in the kitchen. The way it felt to have Sara’s hands resting on her hips as she watched her cook. Suddenly the image of Sara bleeding out in the bathtub ripped through her daydreaming and she gasped, quickly opening her eyes and pushing off the wall. Ava realized she had probably been gone far too long and she needed to get back to Sara. She towel dried her hair and quickly threw on her jeans and t-shirt. Lastly, she pulled Sara’s over sized hoodie over her head and relished in the faint scent of her girlfriend. It brought her comfort and a sense of relaxation. 

  
  


Ava headed back to the med bay feeling much better and thanked Mick as she passed him who just grumbled and nodded. She made a quick stop to toss her bloodied clothes into the trash before returning to Sara’s side. Nora was still waiting patiently for Ava’s return and had been flipping through the pages of the book Ava left behind. Nora glanced up at Ava with a smile, happy to see that the woman had taken her advice. 

  
  


Ava took into account the untouched mug of coffee she had brought in earlier.

  
  


“She didn’t wake up yet?”, Ava asked, voice laden with concern.

  
  


“Nope, she’s been asleep ever since you left.”

  
  


Ava thought for sure Sara would have at least woken up for a second. After all, Sara had been asleep for almost a day. 

  
  


“Gideon, why hasn’t she woken up yet?”, Ava demanded, letting worry get the best of her.

  
  


“I have reason to believe Captain Lance has slipped into a coma due to the extensive blood loss she suffered. I have no way of telling how long until she wakes up again. I’m sorry”, Gideon replied sullenly.

  
  


Ava felt her knees go weak and barely noticed Nora quickly crossing the room and guiding her to sit down.

  
  


“I’m sorry Ava”, Nora offered but it fell on deaf ears.

  
  


“A coma”, Ava spoke to no one in particular, “That can’t be right. Sara isn’t in a coma. She’s going to wake up any minute now. Any minute, she’s going to wake up and flash me that signature smile of hers and probably tell some corny joke to make me laugh.”

  
  


“Ava”, Nora kneeled in front of the taller woman and tried to get her attention. 

  
  


“And I’m going to take her home and put her in bed. And take care of her, get her anything she needs. I’ll make her her favorite dinner and let her choose whatever movie she wants to watch.”

  
  


“Ava come on.”

  
  


“And she’ll probably make fun of me for fussing over her so much but I’ll still do it anyways. And she’ll smooth talk her way out of bed to get back to the ship and….”, tears started trailing down Ava’s cheeks but she was too distracted by her rant to notice. 

  
  


“AVA”, Nora raised her tone and finally snapped Ava out of her trance. “Ava I’m so so sorry. But it’s going to be okay, alright? You can still do all that, it’s just not the time for that yet. You need to acknowledge what Gideon just said. Sara’s a tough one. She’ll wake up, we just don’t know when. And I know that this is probably the last thing you want to hear right now, but you are the interim captain while Sara is away and the team is going to be looking to you for guidance. We both know how lost they are without Sara. I’m going to go and let them know what's happening, just stay put okay?”

  
  


“But I’m lost without her too”, Ava mumbled after Nora left the room, unable to comprehend the fact that she didn’t know when the next time she would see those ocean blue eyes again would be.

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. On the bright side, finals are finally over!


	11. Waiting

Ava had spent the last week in the med bay, by Sara’s side. She brought in pillows and blankets and had commandeered the other medical chair as her bed. She repeated the same ritual each day. Ava had always been one for guidelines and rules. It gave her a sense of security, a sense of control. So of course she applied that method of coping to her current stressful situation and condensed each day into a series of five steps.

  
  


Step 1: Wake up and ask Gideon about Sara’s condition.

Step 2: Give Sara a kiss and tell her that you love her.

Step 3: Get a change of clothes and ready for the day.

Step 4: Get two mugs of coffee from the fabricator, one for you and one for Sara (despite the fact she isn’t awake to drink it).

Step 5: Stay by Sara’s side until sleep takes over and drags you into another day.

  
  


Occasionally she’d throw in Step 6: Get absolutely hammered on Sara’s good whiskey to drown away your loneliness and guilt.

  
  


The rest of the team saw how much Ava was hurting and tried to get her out of the dreary routine to no avail. Luckily the timeline had stayed for the most part intact during the week, with the few missions being simple enough for Ava to quarterback from the med bay. Every now and then Ava would get a visitor, not that she paid much attention to them anyway. Zari and Mick felt guilty and mostly steered clear, afraid of facing Ava’s wrath. Ray would bring in fresh flowers and always offer a sickeningly sweet smile and some positive saying. Nate offered up some of his junk food and to Ava’s distaste, a never ending hug. Even Mona dropped by to bring Ava a new stack of books to pass the time with. While Ava appreciated the efforts of the team, she only really opened up to Nora and Charlie. Charlie was Ava’s booze delivery girl. She swiped bottles out of the Captain’s Quarters and drank silently alongside her. Ava enjoyed the silence, the warmth the liquor brought as it slid down her throat. Nora was the most concerned of them all and would check in every day and pester Ava to get out and do something else. She tried to get her to go on a mission and take a break from staring at Sara’s sleeping figure. Nora even suggested that she go home for a couple days to try and take her mind off things. Ava had scoffed at that comment, angered Nora would even suggest something so stupid. Why would she completely leave the ship so she had no idea what was going on with Sara. Just so she could go home and be alone. Be reminded of letting Sara go off on the mission every time she entered the kitchen. So she could be painfully aware of the cold empty bed and stare at the ceiling until she went crazy. No thanks. After Nora had left it didn’t take long for Ava to feel bad about her actions. She had treated Nora rudely and all she was trying to do was help. Deep down Ava knew Nora was right. Ava needed some sort of distraction. It wasn’t good for her to spend all her time in the med bay. Every minute Sara didn’t wake up was another minute of Ava’s insecurities running wild inside her head. What if Sara never woke up? What if when she woke up she was upset at Ava for not coming sooner? What if she was dreaming of a different life and she decided she didn’t want Ava when she woke up? What if she didn’t remember who Ava was? Ava knew she was driving herself mad with her thoughts and it was because she had imprisoned herself by Sara’s side, passing the time by watching the rise and fall of Sara’s chest. Ava heard the hydraulics of the door sliding open signalling the arrival of a visitor and a welcome distraction for the onslaught of worries berating her mind. She frowned knowing the identity of the visitor by the lack of a cheerful greeting and long drawn-out sigh, Nora.

  
  


“Good Morning Ava.”

  
  


“Morning”, Ava mumbled tiredly, mentally preparing herself for Nora’s daily arsenal of self-care tips.

  
  


“How are you?”

  
  


“Same as yesterday.”

  
  


“Well I’d tell you that you look tired and should go take some time for yourself but I already know you’ll just ignore my advice so I’ll just save us both the annoyance. It’s been a week Ava. I think you should go tell Laurel. Or if you are too stubborn to do that then you could at least call her.” 

  
  


Ava stiffened at the name. She hadn’t even thought about telling Sara’s family or any of her friends about her situation. She had just assumed that Sara would wake up any minute and she would spare them the sadness. Nora was right, Laurel deserved to know. She’d probably already be angry with Ava for waiting so long to tell her.

  
  


“You’re right”, Ava sighed, “Do you think you could keep an eye on her for a couple of hours for me?”

Nora blinked back surprise. “You’re going to go in person? I’m sorry I just didn’t expect you to agree to that since you’ve been a stubborn ass all week.”

  
  


“Yeah. I owe it to her. I should have thought to tell her a while ago. I just...I thought she’d be awake by now.”

  
  


Nora laid a reassuring hand on Ava’s shoulder, “It’s okay. I think we all did. It’s hard to imagine Sara being out for the count I think. I’ll call you if anything changes. I promise.”

  
  


“Thanks”, Ava gave Nora a hug much to her surprise, “And I’m sorry for being a dick. I know you’re just trying to look out for me and I appreciate it a lot. When I’m upset I’m used to sharing it with Sara and now I don’t have that so I just kind of returned to my default of closing myself off. You’ve helped me a lot whether it shows or not.”

  
  


“I understand. It’s fine, really. Besides, it was kind of a game for me seeing how fast I could make you scowl.”

  
  


Ava grinned for the first time in days and playfully shoved Nora, “You’re ridiculous.”

  
  


Ava turned and kneeled down by Sara’s side where her smile quickly faded away. She held onto Sara’s hand and leaned in to place a kiss on her pale forehead. Nora picked up a book to become suddenly interested in in order to give the two a bit of privacy. 

  
  


“Hey there beautiful. I’m going to leave you with Nora for a few hours. I’m off to get yelled at by your sister now. If you could just do me a favor and wake up any second now and spare me the trouble that would be really nice. If you could just wake up in general that would be really really nice. Anyways, wish me luck. I love you. I’ll be back soon I promise.”

  
  


Ava’s voice was laced with sadness and Nora wished there was something more she could do to end her friends pain. Ava stared at Sara a little longer before turning and nodding at Nora as she opened a portal to her and Sara’s place. As soon as she stepped foot into their place she immediately regretted coming home. She should have just borrowed some of Sara’s clothes from the ship again. Her stomach growled and she reluctantly drug herself to the kitchen only to lose her appetite when she opened the fridge and saw the dinner she had made for the two of them before everything had happened. Ava really hadn’t wanted to come home, but she knew if she showed up to Laurel’s looking a mess that it would probably freak her out. And if she was being honest, she had already gone through her supply of spare clothes on the waverider and only had a few pairs of Sara’s sweatpants remaining. Ava was aware what she had been doing the past week was sad and unhealthy, but she couldn’t bring herself to break the routine. She felt she deserved the sadness as a punishment and it weighed heavy on her every day. 

  
  


\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  


After a long shower and an unnecessary amount of time fussing with her hair and jacket, Ava was ready to go. She had opted to wear her time bureau suit and treat this like a mission. She figured it would give her a better chance of getting through this without breaking down. Ava decided to walk the short distance to Laurel’s apartment to give herself some time to clear her head. Admittedly, Nora had been right. The alone time and getting away from the med bay had been quite therapeutic for her. It was nice to be away from it all but she knew as soon as she was done telling Laurel that she’d go straight back to the ship and resume her new normal. Lost in her thoughts, she looked up to find herself already in front of Laurel’s building. She had brought Sara’s spare key to get in the main door without ringing the buzzer in order to give herself more time to calm down. Despite getting kind of close with Laurel, she was still very nervous about telling her what had happened. Laurel was going to regard her as the constant bringer of bad news. Ava looked herself over and adjusted her suit jacket one last time before knocking on the door. 

  
  


When the door opens Ava is greeted by a bald man with a short stubbly beard. 

  
  


Ava mentally cursed herself thinking she knocked on the wrong door, “I’m sorry, I thought this was Laurel Lance’s apartment. My apologies, I've been rather out of it lately.”

  
  


“No worries, this is her apartment, she's just a little preoccupied at the moment”, the man offered his hand, “Quentin Lance. You must be one of Laurel’s friends, come on in.”

Ava turned rigid at the name, of course her first time meeting Sara’s dad had to be to tell him she had let Sara go off on her own and she had nearly died. Great, what a way to make a first impression. 

  
  


Ava shook his hand firmly, acting professionally, “I guess you could say that, I’m actually much closer with your other daughter. Nice to meet you sir, my name's Ava Sharpe.”

  
  


Quentin’s eyes about popped out of his head and he got a huge grin on his face, “You’re THE Ava Sharpe! Oh what an honor it is to finally meet you. You’re the hero my daughters can’t stop talking about. Tell me, how is my baby girl? You know she doesn’t call me enough but I suppose that can happen when you’re travelling all throughout time. Oh and please, call me Quentin.”

  
  


Quentin looked out in the hall, probably looking for Sara Ava thought, before closing the door and walking her to the living room. 

  
  


“I’m definitely no hero”, Ava responded sounding slightly dejected, “And I’m actually here about Sara.”

  
  


Ava noticed a flash of panic in Quentin's eyes but he was trying to play it off, “What kind of trouble has she gotten herself into now? It’s always something with that girl. It’s been that way ever since she was a little girl.”

  
  


“Dad, who are you talking to?”, Laurel asked from the other room. She froze for a second when she saw Ava but quickly lightened up and crossed the room to give her a hug. 

  
  


“Ava, hey! What are you doing here? Is Sara here too?”, Laurel asked, happy but slightly worried to see her sister’s girlfriend.

  
  


“Hey Laurel”, Ava returned the hug, “No, Sara’s not here. She’s back on the ship right now. Um there’s no easy way to really say this so I’m just gonna go for it. Sara went on a mission and she got hurt really bad, it sent her into a coma...she has been for about a week now. I’m so sorry I haven’t come to tell you sooner, I just…I thought she would have woken up by now.”

  
  


Ava tried to avoid eye contact with Laurel or her father, they could practically see the guilt radiating off of her. 

  
  


“Does Gideon have any idea of when she is going to wake up?”, Laurel asked cautiously. 

  
  


“No.”

  
  


“Well, I have to say that’s a lot better than what I thought you were going to say”, Laurel added, earning Ava’s attention and a bewildered look.

  
  


Quentin seemed a little shaken up but smiled, “Ava, we are no stranger to bad news with Sara. Do you know how many times I’ve been told my daughter was dead? We don’t get to see Sara all that much since she joined the Legends and we hear from her even less. Not that we are upset about that, we understand that she’s off saving the world and all that. But usually when we do hear something about Sara it’s bad news. It’s odd to say, but we are kind of used to it.”

  
  


To say Ava was shocked was an understatement. She felt a confusing mix of upset and comforted by Quentin’s revelation. It was nice to know that they weren’t upset with her but sad to think of all the pain the Lance family has gone through. 

  
  


“I’m sorry, I just thought you guys were going to hate me for not protecting her or telling you sooner.”

  
  


“Nonsense”, Laurel smiled, “If she’s with you then we know she’s in good hands. Like dad said, trouble is drawn to Sara, I’m sure it wasn’t your fault.”

  
  


“Ava, if you don’t mind me asking. What happened?”, Quentin proceeded.

“It’s okay, you deserve to know. We were at home having a date night. Gideon called and said she had found an encore we needed to take care of. Oh, sorry you probably don’t know what and encore is do you? Short version they are souls reincarnated from hell with super weapons sent here to cause chaos and kill. I was cooking dinner when Gideon called so Sara told me to stay and she’d go take care of it. Well the encore ended up being Ted Bundy and his hell weapon was a ring that would charm anyone he touched with it. He got Sara with it, without Rory or Zari knowing what had happened. They lost sight of her for a while, and called me for backup. When I found Sara she was really bad off. She was unconscious and had lost so much blood. I rushed her back to Gideon and uh...her heart stopped beating for a while. Gideon was able to get her back but she hasn’t woken up yet. I’m sorry I didn’t go with her. If I had been with her things could have been different. It could have been me instead of her”, Ava answered, trying her hardest to prevent herself from tearing up. 

  
  


“There’s no way of telling what would have happened if you were there too. And from what you just told us it sounds like you are the one responsible for saving my daughter, so thank you. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’ve already done more than enough for my baby girl. Is there any way you could take us to see her?”, Quentin’s voice was kind and reassuring.

  
  


“If you want, I can portal you two on the ship to see her”, Ava deflected the support feeling as if she didn’t deserve it.

  
  


“That would be great Ava, thanks. And thank you for coming to tell us”, Quentin added.

  
  


Ava turned away from them to hide her smile and open a portal. Sara’s family was so kind and supportive. They had taken the news quite well, a lot better than she expected actually. Ava could tell that they were worried and all by their expressions but they were still so sweet to her. Ava thought this must be what it’s like to have a real family. She hoped, one day she could make Quentin and Laurel her family too. Laurel popped right on through the portal already familiar with the whole process, while Quentin stood and stared at it like it was the craziest thing he’d ever seen. 

  
  


“Has Sara never taken you on the Waverider before?”, Ava asked him, confused by his reaction.

  
  


“Uh well, Sara tells me I’ve been on it but she said she also wiped my memory so yes and no. Do I just walk on through that or?”, Quentin asked, scratching the back of his head.

  
  


Ava tried to stifle a laugh, “Sounds like something she would do. Yes just walk through and you’ll be transported to the ship.”

  
  


Quentin approached the portal and hesitantly stepped through looking bewildered by green of the temporal zone outside the window.

  
  


“Welcome aboard”, Ava directed at Quentin, “Come on. The med bay is this way.”

  
  


Ava led the way down the metal halls and through the med bay doors to see Nora patiently waiting for her return. Nora closed her book and smiled at the guests. 

  
  


“You’re back, and you brought guests! Hi Laurel, good to see you again.”

“Hey Nora”, Laurel greeted.

  
  


“Nora, this is Quentin Lance, Sara’s father”, Ava introduced.

  
  


Nora’s eyes went wide for just a second and she looked at Ava with an eyebrow raised. Quentin politely nodded in greeting but was clearly distracted by the sight of his daughter resting in the chair.

  
  


“Any changes?”, Ava asked sadly, already knowing the answer.

  
  


“No, I’m sorry”, Nora replied.

  
  


Ava sighed and moved to the side of Sara opposite Quentin and Laurel. She kneeled down and took Sara’s hand in her own before kissing it softly. She wasn’t really sure how she should behave around Sara’s dad so she opted for the safe route.

  
  


“Hey babe I’m back. I brought your dad and sister to see you. They were both very nice to me and didn’t yell at me for not keeping you safe. I’ll let you have some alone time with them now. I love you”, Ava spoke quietly to Sara’s sleeping figure. 

  
  


She didn’t notice Quentin and Laurel watching the interaction, pleased with the way she treats Sara. Ava stood up and straightened out her jacket. 

  
  


“Well I’ll just leave you guys alone for some family time. If you need anything I’ll be down the hall in Sara’s room”

  
  


“Ava, you know you’re her family too”, Laurel said.

  
  


“Yeah um thanks”, Ava was flattered by the remark and didn’t really know what to say back. Ava turned to leave when her eyes fell on the messy med chair that had been her bed for the past week. Her face flushed with embarrassment and she hurriedly picked up the assortment of blankets and pillows much to Nora’s amusement. The makeshift bed didn’t go unnoticed by Laurel but she figured now wasn’t the time to question Ava about it. Laurel could see that Ava wasn’t doing great. Her voice always had an undertone of sadness even when she tried to hide it and she looked tired. Laurel was willing to bet Ava hadn’t left Sara’s side since the mission. She was sure Ava wasn’t taking care of herself and made a mental note to talk to her about it later. 

  
  


“I’ll leave as well”, Nora smiled, “it was nice to meet you Quentin, later Laurel.”

  
  


Nora and Ava walked out together. As soon as the doors slid shut Nora started laughing at a frazzled Ava. Ava proceeded to smack her with one of the pillows she was currently trying to balance in her arms. 

  
  


“I see you’re trying to get rid of the evidence”, Nora joked.

  
  


“Shut up! I forget it was in there. I don’t need them to know I’ve been living in there all week.”

  
  


Nora stopped laughing and turned sincere, “You know they’d probably just think it was sweet and it would make them like you even more.”

  
  


“No, it’ll just make them think I’m a weird creep that sits there and stares at Sara all day. Plus they’ll think I’m messy”, Ava protested.

  
  


“Oh so just to be clear, you aren’t a weird creep that stares at Sara all day?”, Nora teased earning herself another pillow smack.

  
  


“No I’m a worried and loving girlfriend waiting for her to wake up”, Ava replied, sadness entering her tone again.

  
  


“Sooooo you met her dad? Hell of a first impression. Hi I’m your daughters time travelling girlfriend, oh by the way your daughter is in a coma! I thought you just went to get Laurel.”

  
  


“I know right! He probably hates me and is just too polite to show it. And that was the plan but when I knocked on her door he answered so I didn’t really have a choice”, Ava replied, stressed from today’s events.

  
  


“Ava if he hates you after seeing the way you care for his daughter then he’s absolutely crazy. I think you worry too much.”

  
  


The pair reached Sara’s room and Ava thanked her for watching over Sara before going inside. Ava tossed the pillows and blankets down on the bed before taking off her blazer and laying it on the chair. Ava collapsed onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling, counting each rivet to pass the time. She couldn’t stop her mind from wandering to bad thoughts. What if everything had gone different. What if she hadn’t got to Sara in time and instead had to go tell Laurel her sister was dead. What if the first time she met Quentin was to say his daughter was gone and it was all her fault. What if she was wearing that suit to Sara’s funeral. What if Sara never woke up. She let the emotion she had buried down all day come out and tears tracked down her cheeks. Her stomach growled and she remembered she hadn’t eaten anything today but she was too numb to care. Ava poured herself a glass of whiskey which she shot down quickly then picked up the picture of her and Sara on the nightstand. She stared at the picture for what felt like hours. She was mesmerized by the blue of Sara’s eyes and her bright smile. She’d do anything to see those eyes right now. To make her smile and hear her laugh. She’d do anything to trade places with Sara. She had meant it when she said it earlier. Sara didn’t deserve to be in the med bay. She and her family have already been through their fair share of catastrophe. But if Ava was the one in the chair everything would be different. There would be nobody to care besides Sara and the team. Besides, if they wanted they could always just go get another Ava clone to replace her. Ava could hear Sara’s voice in her head scolding her for thinking about it but she couldn’t prevent that insecurity from rearing its ugly head. She was brought out of her thoughts by a knock on the door.

  
  


Ava quickly sat up and rearranged herself, “Gideon, open the door please.”

  
  


The door slid open and Laurel entered offering a small wave and taking in Sara’s room. She walked around, examining each artifact and picking up trinkets. She noticed the picture beside Ava on the bed and sat down next to her.

  
  


“May I?”, Laurel gestured towards the picture.

  
  


“Oh, yeah go ahead! Besides, it’s Sara’s anyways”, Ava handed the photo to Laurel.

  
  


“You know she is really in love with you.”

  
  


“I sure hope so.”

  
  


“I'm serious Ava. She’s crazy about you. I mean look at this smile. She was never this happy before you. Before she met you...she was lost. It’s like nothing could really make her happy. I mean she had fleeting happiness and she’d always put on a smile for us but deep down she was just sad. She had all this sadness and guilt she carried with her but it’s like you just took all that weight off her shoulders. You saved her, in more ways than one”, Laurel explained, still entranced by the picture.

  
  


“I didn’t save her this time”, Ava choked out, pouring herself a second glass of whiskey.

  
  


“Well according to everything I heard, you in fact did save her. You are the one who went and got her and you’re the reason she’s alive.”

  
  


“You know what I mean. I know she’s physically here but she’s not here. And I have no idea when I’ll even get her back. If I ever get her back!”, Ava exclaimed.

  
  


Laurel patiently waited for Ava’s outburst to end, “Sara is going to wake up. You know she’s strong, and she’s stubborn as hell. Whatever is happening inside her mind, I’m confident that she is fighting her way back to you.”

Ava broke down at Laurel’s words. She had been trying her hardest to put on a mask in front of everyone. She didn’t want them to see her break. The team needed a leader that was emotionally stable. She had to step up and be that for them, and as a result she had been bottling up her emotions.

  
  


“I just miss her so much”, Ava choked out. 

  
  


“Yeah, me too. But it’s going to be okay. And Ava, you know you still need to live your life. Don’t think I didn’t see your little makeshift bed in there. I know you want to be with Sara but honestly sitting in there all day isn’t going to help you. You’re making yourself miserable sitting in there. And I know you think you deserve that but you don’t. And if you won’t believe me or your friends on that, then at least think of Sara. You know she would want you happy and healthy. And you aren’t fooling anyone Ava, if I may be blunt. You look like shit. I asked the team about you. I know that you aren’t sleeping and you barely eat. You don’t take care of yourself and you’ve been drinking way more than normal. You do nothing but sit in that room day in and day out. Sara wouldn’t want this”, Laurel lectured in a caring tone. 

  
  


“Laurel I’m fine. Really. You don’t need to worry about me.”

  
  


“Please Ava. Anyone with eyes can see you’re hurting. Plus if I didn’t make you take care of yourself, Sara would come kick my ass when she wakes up.”

  
  


“What is it you want from me?”

  
  


“Look I’m not saying you should avoid Sara at all costs or anything. But maybe go home at the end of the day. Go out with your friends. Go on a mission and do your superhero shit. Just try to be happy”, Laurel smiled.

  
  


“No promises”, Ava replied, earning a frown out of Laurel, “But I suppose you’re right. Sara wouldn’t want to see me like this. So I’ll give it a shot.”

  
  


Laurel leaned in for a hug, satisfied that she had finally gotten through to Ava. Ava’s empty stomach interrupted the moment, drawing a laugh out of Laurel.

  
  


“Someone’s hungry! I hear there’s a place on this ship where I can get any food I want. Whaddya say we go eat our feelings away?”

  
  


Ava had a real smile on her face for the first time in awhile, “Gideon, have some cookie dough waiting for us in the kitchen!”


	12. Visitation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava copes with a month without Sara ft. a special guest appearance from Kara and Lena.

It had been a shitty month for Ava. It seemed like ever since Sara was out of commission the encores were crawling out of the woodwork. Her and the team had been bruised and battered and were really starting to feel beaten down. Plus without Sara awake to send them off with bad puns and crack silly jokes, morale was at an all time low. Regardless, Ava didn’t mind the missions all that much. Sure they had been grueling and annoying but they kept her mind off of Sara and the sadness that thinking of her brought about. 

“Fuck this! These assholes are never ending”, Zari groaned as she used her totem to send out wind with a lot more force than necessary. The poor goon was hit with the force of a hurricane and blown quite literally out of sight.

“Look guys”, Ava yelled out while managing two brawlers at once, “I know this has been a rough couple of weeks. And I know we all want to go home...OW MOTHERFUCKER!” Ava recoiled from a hard elbow to the face that was sure to leave a nasty bruise. She wasted no time in kicking the goon into the next year. “As I was saying, let’s just get this mission over with and have some much needed vacation time.”

“Aruba!”, Mick’s eyes lit up as he blasted the encore with his gun to keep him subdued while John opened the gate to hell. 

“Oi boss! You really mean that?”, Charlie questioned, knowing all too well that the Legends don’t really get a break.

Ava, having dispatched the last enemy, stood up and brushed off her jacked, “Yeah in fact I’m ordering it. Go off and relax. Get your spirits up. You guys deserve it.”

Nora eyed Ava suspiciously already knowing the answer to her question, “Why do I feel like you will not be partaking on this prescribed relaxation time as well?”

“Nora, you know that the timeline cannot go unmonitored. I’ll stay on the ship in case anything happens”, Ava replied formally, easily slipping into her time bureau director shell before the inevitable disagreement that she was about to receive. 

Ray was quick to follow his fiance’s train of thought and protested in his ever cheery voice, “Now Ava, you’ve been working just as hard as us, if not harder! You need a break too! Please, you take the week off and we can all man the ship in shifts.”

“Speak for yourself boy scout”, Mick grumbled.

“I appreciate your offer Ray but I will be spending my time on the ship anyways and there is no need for a double watch. Go enjoy yourselves and I’ll see you in a week”, Ava added, before opening a portal and walking onto the ship leaving no time for any additional argument.

While the team didn’t want to leave Ava alone, they were all tired. They also knew that Ava wouldn’t leave Sara alone for an extended period of time. They practically had to pry her out of the medbay enough as it is. Having seemingly come to a mutual agreement without actually speaking, they all shrugged at each other and went off on their own ways.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as Ava stepped foot on the cold metal floors of the Waverider she hastily made her way to the medbay. She couldn’t help but get excited every time just in case she would enter and find ocean blue eyes staring back at her only to have her hopes crushed every single time. Ava sighed as she entered to see Sara still asleep and tuned out Gideon giving the same progress report she did every single day. 

Ava got down on her knees in front of the bed and rested her head tiredly by Sara’s hand.

“Hey babe, I’m back. Today’s mission was really long but not too bad. The team has been working really hard with all these encores and we’ve really been beaten down so I sent everyone on a vacation. To be honest, everyone has kind of been at each other's throats around here lately. Guess I’m not as great of a captain as you are. Anyways, it’s just going to be you and me for a week.”

Ava moved to kiss the inside of Sara’s palm. 

“I took a little bit of a beating today, so I’m going to go wash up. I love you.”

Ava took one last parting glance at Sara before making her way to the shower. She had to admit it was nice having the ship to herself. There was no line for the bathroom, no mess in the kitchen, and no need for her to dress in anything but her pajamas. Ava locked the bathroom door out of habit and ordered Gideon to play Sara’s playlist. She stripped down and stepped under the hot stream of water, letting the heat soothe her aching body. Between spending her days dealing with an onslaught of encores and her nights by Sara’s side, Ava was exhausted. Ava was thankful for the busy schedule though. Being this tired left no time to tear herself apart with guilt. Sure things had gotten a little better over the past month. Laurel had made it her goal to come and visit Sara and Ava once each week. Laurel always made it clear that she didn’t blame Ava for Sara’s condition which took a lot of weight off of Ava’s shoulders. Needless to say, that guilt was still present deep inside and would come out to wreak havoc on sleepless nights. Nothing a little, or a lot of whiskey couldn’t solve. Ava had gotten lost in her thoughts going over the events of the past few weeks and realized she’d been in the shower for nearly an hour. Ava quickly dried herself off and through on a pair of Sara’s sweatpants and tight tank top. She caught sight of herself in the mirror and couldn’t help but run her fingers over the deep purple that sprawled up her jawline and over her cheek. In that moment she decided to leave it there as a punishment for being so weak and tired instead of having Gideon erase it in a matter of minutes. A dull throbbing began in her cheek, the bruise making its presence known. Ava stopped by the kitchen to make some herbal tea before heading back to her makeshift bedroom in the medbay. Now that everyone was gone, there was no one to pester her about living in the medbay. The soothing fragrance of the tea filled the small room giving it a homey aura. It was a special tea Sara always drank that Ava had become attached to. She hoped that Sara would smell it and maybe have sweet dreams. As she sipped on it she felt the strain of the day’s events begin to weigh on her and slowly succumbed to the exhaustion, snuggling into her blanket nest.

“Sweet dreams babe”, she whispered before sleep took over. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ava slept in and for the first time in a month genuinely felt at peace. She was well rested and had managed to get through the night without a nightmare waking her. Sure when Ava thought of a vacation sitting in the medbay alone wasn’t the first thing that came to mind, but this was her life now. Ava carelessly pushed her blankets aside and stood up to stretch. She asked Gideon if anyone was on the ship just to make sure nobody had snuck back on and was relieved to hear she was alone. She had Gideon play her playlist throughout the ship and found herself dancing her way to the kitchen, occasionally belting out lyrics shamelessly. Ava grabbed the coffee and french toast Gideon had waiting for her from the fabricator and shuffled her way to the bridge. She briefly looked over the screens for any sign of anachronisms or encores and was pleased to find everything was fine. Ava requested Gideon alert her of any changes and prayed nothing too bad would happen. She really didn’t want to have to call the team in but she knew how reckless it was to go on a solo mission. Once back in her chair in the medbay, Ava enjoyed her late breakfast while switching one of the status screens to Hulu. Her plans for her vacation were very simple. Extensive binge watching, getting a few months ahead on book club readings, and expelling all her emotions upon the poor defenseless punching bag in the training room. And binge watch she did. Ava managed to watch the entirety of Killing Eve and was very vocally reacting to the ups and downs of the show. At times she felt guilty for watching it without Sara when she knew how much she would enjoy it but she couldn’t stop. She promised to re-watch it with Sara when she awoke each time she hit the next episode button knowing all too well how her own former assassin would like watching the goddess that is Villanelle go about her work. Ava drifted off to sleep trying to predict how Sara would react to each scene. It was the first time she had thought about Sara in the future without letting the worry that Sara might never wake up slip in. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ava never knew how much she missed the team until they were gone. What she would do to hear Mick grumble on about having to wait to do his laundry or even listen to Zari and Charlie’s incessant flirting. She had suspected something between the two and seeing how long it took them to hook up had become sort of a game to her. It was almost painful how oblivious Zari could be. Especially since Zari was the one who told Sara to pursue a relationship with Ava. Needless to say, Ava was beyond bored. She had binge watched everything on her list and completed the stack of books Nora and Mona had left her with. She had even trained so hard she put a hole in the boxing bag. (She was quite proud of it and taped it up to show Sara later.) She was so bored she even wished an anachronism would appear so she’d have something to do. So when she heard Gideon announce someone was calling she jumped out of her seat with excitement. 

“Captain Sharpe, Kara Danvers is calling the Waverider. Should I put her on?”, Gideon announced.

Ava’s jaw dropped, “SUPERGIRL IS CALLING?! Oh my beebo I look a mess, she can’t see me like this! Gideon stall for me.”

“Connecting you now”, Gideon announced cheekily while Ava scrambled to throw on a hoodie. 

A hologram of a super suit clad Kara appeared mere steps in front of a startled Ava. 

Kara looked confused but cheerful as ever, “Oh hello Ava! I was expecting Sara to answer, is she around? I’ve been calling her phone for days but she won’t answer and I need her help with a mission.”

“Kara, there was an accident. Sara is in a coma, she has been for a little over a month now. As for your mission I can try my best to help you out, after all I have quite a bit of free time on my hands”, Ava made an attempt at a joke to cover up her sadness. She was never good at breaking the news to people.

“OH RAO! A MONTH! I’m so sorry Ava. If there is anything I can do for you just call me, okay? Sara is family and that makes you family too”, Kara moved to give Ava a hug before realizing she was a hologram and blushing from embarrassment. 

“Thanks Kara. What’s your mission concerning?”, Ava asked, trying to shift the attention off of her so Kara wouldn’t notice how psyched she was about being called Supergirl’s family. 

“Oh yeah so there is this ancient godlike alien that has been causing chaos on earth since like creation named Rama Khan. He’s a part of this secret organization of evildoers called Leviathan. We had thought we took care of him but then crisis happened and we have reason to believe some form of him is on this earth. I need help tracking him down throughout history to try and find out more about him”, Kara spoke nonchalantly. 

Hearing what Kara had to face made Ava feel thankful that all she had to deal with is historical figures displaced in time and the occasional hell demon. “Well I haven’t heard of him myself but if you would like to come to the Waverider I’m sure Gideon could help you out. Plus we have some rare ancient books in the library that may be of service to you. I can call Nate back to the ship to help too. History is kind of his thing.”

“No need to bother Nate. I can just super speed read through the books. Besides, Gideon will come up with something. She makes the DEO software look obsolete. Where are you located at right now?”

Ava was caught off guard by the question and looked away nervously, “Oh ummmm I’m kind of in space right now. I’ve had the ship to myself so I flew it into orbit. I like to look out at the earth and the stars, it’s just so peaceful up here. How about I land the ship in the mountains outside of National City tonight and you meet me there?”

“Sounds perfect. Thank you”, Kara smiled, “And Ava? I know exactly what you mean. When I have a lot of my mind I fly up as close to the stars as I can get and look down. To see this giant earth makes my problems seem tiny and insignificant. Anyways, I’ll see you tonight. Bye!”

“I look forward to it”, Ava replied before disconnecting the call. Kara's understanding had been unexpected but made Ava feel a little less alone. Ava went to go clean herself up and put on something nicer than sweatpants in preparation for Supergirl’s arrival later on.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ava nestled the ship in a discreet little valley between the mountains and within seconds Gideon was informing her someone was outside the cargo bay door. She flicked on the camera to find Kara hovering outside the doe while carrying Lena bridal style. Lena was holding a bouquet of flowers and an expensive bottle of whiskey. The two appeared to be having a playful argument. 

“Kara put me down. Look what you’ve done to my hair I look a mess”, Lena scolded.

Kara smiled down at her girlfriend, “But I like holding you. Like a LOT.”

Lena playfully slapped Kara’s arm, “Kara Danvers you put me down right this minute. I don’t want to be inconsiderate.”

“Fineeeeee. But only because you made a good point”, Kara reluctantly sat Lena on the ground.

“I always make good points”, Lena smarted off with a smug grin.

The cargo door opened up to reveal Ava who nervously waved, “Hey guys.”

Lena rushed forwards and pulled Ava in for a hug, “Kara told me what happened. I’m so sorry I should have been here for you sooner. I’ve just been so busy at L-Corp lately that I didn’t think to call. I’m sorry I’ve been a terrible friend.”

Ever since Lena and Ava had met they had become close friends. They would usually text a couple of times throughout the week although it wasn’t really at the forefront of Ava’s mind recently given Sara’s condition.

“Please, you’re here now aren’t you? And you come bearing gifts I see. And here I thought I’d always bring the best drinks given I’m a time traveler and all”, Ava reassured Lena, happy to be in the company of her friend. 

“Oh this?”, Lena smirked proudly, “Just a wickedly expensive bottle passed down the Luthor line for generations that I stole out of the mansion. I figured you are far more deserving of it than Lex or Lillian.” 

“You can say that again”, Kara mumbled quietly and rolled her eyes.

Now that the initial greeting was over, Lena slowly took in her surroundings. Ava noticed her interest and was slightly excited to show off her ship, “Welcome to the Waverider Lena. Well, you too Kara, but you’ve been here before. Follow me to the bridge.”

Lena ran her fingers along the metal hallways as they walked and her eyes widened when they arrived at the bridge and a giant hologram of a head began speaking.

“Welcome back Miss Danvers and welcome aboard Miss Luthor”, Gideon cheerfully greeted. 

Lena was immediately drawn to the AI that put her own little project HOPE to shame. She glanced at the screens and took in all the information displayed about every event going on throughout the timeline. “Wow, Ava, this is amazing! The sheer amount of science and technology behind this is more advanced than anything I’ve ever seen! This very well may be the incredible thing I’ve seen!”

“Oh come on now Lena. Your girlfriend has super strength, can literally fly faster than a bullet and she shoots laser beams out of her eyes!”, Ava joked.

“And freeze breath”, Kara pouted, a tad bit hurt that Lena found a spaceship cooler than her.

“Oh darling, no need to get jealous over a ship. You’ll always be my favorite no matter how marvelous said ship is.” Lena leaned up to give Kara a kiss on the cheek, instantly soothing her girlfriends sorrows. 

“Mhmmmm sure. Should I be worried that Gideon is going to steal my girl, what with the way you’re checking her out and all”, Kara teased.

Gideon’s hologram smiled and turned away shyly, “I’m flattered Miss Luthor.”

“I mean can you blame me? This AI is the most advanced and revolutionary piece of technology I’ve ever laid eyes on! Kara, why don’t you have one?”, Lena spoke excitedly, fangirling over the tech.

“Well, Barry has a Gideon as well but I’ve been told she doesn’t have half the personality of our cheeky resident bot”, Ava answered.

“It’s true, I’ve seen her before. She’s really bland. Especially since his doesn’t come with a fabricator. Speaking of which, Gideon could you make me a platter of potstickers?”, Kara asked, looking as if she was about to super speed to the kitchen.

“Of course, Miss Danvers.”

Kara was gone and back in a second, the only sign she had left being a gust of wind and a giant plate of potstickers in her hand. She rapidly stuffed them in her mouth and practically moaned at the flavor, “These taste just like Noonans. Gideon you never cease to amaze me.”

“That’s because I replicated their recipe”, Gideon proudly interrupted.

Lena looked bewildered by the conversation and the sudden appearance of potstickers. “I’m sorry, the fabricator?”

“Oh yeah, Gideon has this little thingy that can make any food you want in like seconds. And it’s always cooked to perfection”, Kara mumbled through a full mouth.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. How does that even work?! Ava, I’m moving in to this technological dreamland you call home”, Lena teased, earning a laugh out of Ava.

“You are welcome aboard any time, Lena”, Ava offered a friendly smile. “Kara, you are welcome to anything in the library or the captains quarters that might be useful. You already know how to use Gideon so if there’s anything else you need just let me know.”

“Thanks Ava”, Kara mumbled, polishing off the last of the potstickers and making her way to the library.

Lena turned to Ava, giving her a more serious and caring look. “So, how are you? And be honest, I’m quite good at sniffing out lies.”

“I’m fine. Just trying to maintain the timeline in Sara’s absence”, Ava deflected.

“Ava please, you answered that as if I was your superior and you were giving me a progress report. I’ll ask again, how are you doing?”

“I mean it. I’m okay. I’ve just been busy taking care of things.”

“Evidently you’ve been too busy to take care of yourself as well considering that nasty bruise on your cheek despite the fact I know Gideon could heal you in a matter of seconds”, Lena scolded.

Ava let out a long drawled out sigh, “Okay so maybe I’m not doing amazing but I’m surviving, alright?”

“And for the bruise?”, Lena questioned, not dropping the subject.

“Punishment”, Ava mumbled, “A reminder of how my negligence has consequences.”

Lena offered an understanding smile and rested her hand supportively on Ava’s shoulder. “As if you weren’t already mentally punishing yourself relentlessly. Believe me, I know my fair share about self hatred. Growing up in the Luthor household and always trying to walk the line between being a force of good to the world while vying for my family’s approval left little time for personal happiness. Especially when harboring the Luthor name was reason enough for complete strangers to send malice my way due to Lex and Lillian’s wrongdoings.”

Lena led Ava into the Captains Quarters and sat her in a chair. She grabbed two of Sara’s crystal glasses and poured a generous amount of the expensive whiskey she brought with her. “Let me tell you a sad little story. Life has never been kind to me. At a young age my mother died and I was placed in foster care. Then one day a man came and took my by the hand and told me I was to be part of his family. I was told I was fortunate to be adopted by the Luthors, an extremely wealthy and powerful family. I would never have to want for anything. Instead I was met with a cold and harsh family. Lionel was kind to me, that is when he was away for business. Lex was sweet and patient with me but he was often the target of Lionel’s anger and would lash out. And then there was dear old mommy. Lillian looked at me as if I was stain tarnishing her precious little family. She abhorred me and merely tolerated my presence making no efforts to conceal her disdain. When Lionel passed her treatment of me only worsened since he was no longer there to protect me. I faced years upon years of psychological damage at her hands all the while trying to prove myself to her. Trying to prove I was worthy of the Luthor name. Little did I know at the time how in the near future I’d have to wear that name like a curse. Anyways as you know, Lex began his crusade against Superman which only drove the Luthor name into the ground. Regardless, with Lex imprisoned I took the mantle of LuthorCorp and pledged to make it a force for good. I built that company back from the ground up, pouring in my blood, sweat, and tears each step of the way only to have it be overshadowed by Lex's insanity. No matter what I did, the public’s perception was that I was ‘just another evil Luthor planning to finish what my Lex started’. All the while my life and the company was frequently the target of countless attacks which I wouldn’t have made it out of if not for the help of Kara. Then when I had finally proven myself to be more than just the Luthor name, Lillian had to come in like a wrecking ball with her foolish Cadmus plans and once again plunge me into the Luthor darkness. I began to think that was what I deserved. That maybe deep down I was a malicious, coldblooded Luthor whose only purpose was to rule the world. After all, trying to be good had only caused me pain. I hated myself for being a Luthor. I hated myself for still loving Lex even after all he had done. I hated myself for thinking I could be more than my family name. And then there was Kara. She had been there all along, my shining ray of sunshine in the dark. All she had to do was flash me that infectious smile of hers and my troubles melted away. She never stopped believing in me, believing that I was good and my intentions were earnest. I had fallen madly in love with her from the moment I first met her, not that I would ever express that to her. I was content with just being best friends. That is until shortly before the crisis, my maniacal brother informed me that Supergirl and my best friend were one and the same. It flipped my world upside down and broke my heart into a million pieces. All that doubt and self hatred came rushing back in and I was alone and in the darkness again. Even so, crisis came along and Kara was still the only thing on my mind. So when everything was over, I went to talk things over and the rest is history. My point is, happiness is few and far between in my life, that is until I met Kara. Without her, I’m just a cold and ruthless bundle of insecurities. I can only imagine that Sara is to you what Kara is to me. Well, that with hopefully a significantly less tragic backstory. I understand your pain. I’ve seen Kara on her deathbed far too many times for comfort. I also know without a doubt that if Sara were here right now, she’d tell you that you’re crazy for even thinking her situation could be your fault.”

Ava listened to Lena’s tale in silence, finding a lot of it resonating within her. While they came from vastly different backgrounds, they still had a lot in common. Ava was no stranger to insecurities, especially after finding out she was a clone. Ava knew Lena was right, and while many people had said similar things to her recently, none of it had struck a chord quite like Lena’s speech. 

“I know you’re right. Sara would kick my ass for treating myself this way. But it’s just so hard to keep on going like everything is normal”, Ava replied, finishing the glass to drown out her emotions.

“I get it. It’s hard to stay hopeful when your light is missing”, Lena poured another glass for the two of them.

“I feel as if you’re the only other person who understands. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one riddled with insecurities”, Ava joked, earning a smile out of Lena. 

Kara appeared in the doorway looking serious if not for the sprinkle and bit of frosting clinging onto her lip. Gideon had obviously shown her Zari’s donut recipe. 

“Kara, did you find what you were looking for?”, Ava stood up and was back to being all business.

“Yes. Gideon was super helpful and I think we found Rama Khan’s base of operations. Alex, Brainy, and Jonn are already on their way there. Sorry I can’t stay and visit but I really need to catch this guy before he does something major. Thanks for everything”, Kara addressed Ava before turning to Lena, “Do you need me to fly you home real quick?”

Lena walked to her girlfriend, face filled with worry, “No, I’d like to stay here with Ava awhile longer. You best be careful, okay? He’s a formidable enemy and won’t go down easily.”

Kara laughed, “Yes yes I know the drill. Don’t do anything stupid, no getting hurt, and especially no dying. Got it.”

“Glad we’re on the same page. Call me when you’re done with everything.”

“Of course.”

“Give him hell Supergirl.”

“Oh I will. And once again thanks for everything Ava!”, Kara addressed Ava.

“Anytime. Good luck with everything”, Ava smiled.

Kara turned her attention back to Lena before whispering something and giving her a sweet parting kiss. She sped off the ship in a matter of seconds, leaving Ava and Lena alone.

“Well, now that my plans are freed up for the evening, how about we have a little girls night. I am in need of a distraction from the intense battle my girlfriend is about to undergo and you, my friend, desperately need some cheering up”, Lena stood up and offered her hand to Ava.

“What do you have in mind?”

“How about we hit up a bar and drink our worries away. This is a special offer Miss Sharpe. It is not too often I voluntarily get drunk in the public eye with my friends”, Lena teased.

“That sounds great, really. But, I can’t leave the ship in case something happens”, Ava protested.

“Gideon”, Lena called out looking up, “Are you capable of informing Ava if her attention is needed with Sara or the timeline.”

“Of course, Miss Luthor. I can send notifications to Captain Sharpe’s phone.”

Lena smiled smugly, “I believe your wonderful AI has rid you of your responsibilities. Come along now. I know just the place.”

“I’m beginning to see why they call you ruthless”, Ava joked before punching in the location Lena gave her on her time courier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always felt like Ava and Lena would be really good friends if they ever met so I couldn't help but incorporate that in my fic. That and I'm a sucker for supercorp.


	13. Purgatory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava and Lena hit the town of Purgatory for a night out. Wynonna Earp setting in celebration of the new season.

“Not to stereotype or anything, but this really just does not seem like your kind of place”, Ava gawked at the dusty old wooden building that looked like it had come straight out of the wild west. The sign read in giant white letters ‘Shorty’s Saloon’ and the street was packed with Harley’s and beat up old trucks.

“What, too low class for my taste?”, Lena joked as she pushed open the double doors.

“Well considering we pregamed with whiskey that probably worth hundreds of thousands of dollars; yea this seems a little below your price range”, Ava answered, breathing in the stench of sweat and beer.

“Truth be told, this place is kind of like my little hidden gem. I haven’t brought anyone here before, not even Kara. The atmosphere here is light, the drinks are good, and the company is fun. Plus it’s quite liberating to go somewhere where nobody knows your name. It’s a brief respite from the shackles of our all to chaotic lives. And what’s more fitting of a place to cleanse yourself off all your troubles than a town named Purgatory”, Lena smiled. Her demeanor had changed since they arrived at the bar. Her all business ‘take no shit’ attitude had vanished and she seemed free and careless. 

Ava took a seat beside Lena on one of the old barstools, “Well I for one am honored you decided to bring me to your safe space. I promise I’ll keep it a secret.”

“Well it’s not that big of a secret considering Kara can track me by heartbeat if she really wants to. It just might take her awhile because the last place she’ll expect to find me is some honky tonk in the middle of nowhere!”, Lena laughed, letting her guard down completely.

“Okay but that is actually so romantic and super practical. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times that would have been useful with Sara”, Ava relaxed into her seat. She could understand what Lena meant about the place. It was like you could be whoever you wanted and nobody was going to give you trouble. 

A petite girl with long brown hair and an angelic smile approached the two from the other side of the bar, “Lena, long time no see! What can I getcha?”

“Hey Waverly. Two glasses and a bottle of whiskey please. It’s going to be one of those nights”, Lena answered. 

“You got it! I see you brought a friend this time. You came alone so many times I was starting to think you didn’t have anyone! Waverly Earp, welcome to Purgatory!”, the girl enthusiastically greeted and held her hand out to Ava. 

“Ava, Ava Sharpe. Earp. That’s a unique last name. Any relation to the legendary Sheriff Wyatt Earp?”

Waverly poured two glasses of whiskey and slid them along with the remainder of the bottle in front of the pair, “Yep! That would be my great-great-grandpa. You a big fan or something?”

“No no, I’m just an uhhhh…historian and the name stuck with me is all”, Ava quickly lied.

“Well it was nice to meet you Ava and let me know if I can get you anything else!”, the girl moved to the other side of the bar and began an enthusiastic conversation with a red headed sheriff.

“Soooo”, Lena sipped in her whiskey, “you’re a bad liar. What are you a Wild West fangirl?”

“What? No! Western history never intrigued me. I’m way more of a serial killer enthusiast.”

Lena cocked an eyebrow at the comment but urged Ava to continue.

“I’ve met Wyatt Earp before.”

Lena practically spit out her drink, “You what?!”

“A couple years back he was what we call an anachronism displaced in time and I had to capture him and return him to his time. Poor guy got placed in the 80s. Everyone thought he was just a cowboy role player on one hell of a bad trip”, Ava giggled beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol.

Lena burst out laughing, “Oh my god please tell me you have more stories like that! Your job is so much more interesting than mine, I think I’m in the wrong line of work.”

“Oh that’s nothing. You know what Beebo is?”, Ava asked, eager to tell the next story knowing Lena would get a kick out of it.

“Beebo? As in little blue furry Beebo love love loves you?”, Lena questioned.

“Yes that’s the one! Well shortly after meeting Sara and after we were on less hostile terms, she asked me to go on a mission with her. It was to a Viking settlement run by Leif Erikson and his sister. Well somehow a fucking Beebo doll had been displaced to that time period and a Viking found it. They decided to make Beebo their fucking god!”

“No fucking way! You’re making this up!”

“I literally can’t make this shit up. They crafted a big fancy throne for it and dressed it up in furs. They even gave it sacrifices and did whatever it demanded! I know you’re probably thinking Beebo doesn’t talk except for a few programmed lines and you would be correct. They fucking misinterpreted everything he said for demands. They took Beebo hungry as in the doll wanted them to kill for it!”, Ava recalled while laughing. She had fond memories of the mission. It was the first real change in her relationship with Sara and it was just a hilarious mission in general.

Lena downed her glass through her laughter before pouring another for the both of them, “You mean to tell me the Vikings, a group known for their complex battle strategies and advanced sailing skills, fell victim to a kids toy!?”

“Hook, line, and sinker.”

A couple hours and many glasses of whiskey later the two had stumbled over to the pool table. After finishing their bottle of whiskey, they switched to banana liquor at the suggestion of their new cowboy friend Doc. The pool game had grown quite intense, especially for two fairly intoxicated women, and they had earned somewhat of a gathering.

“Why I have seen quite a lot of decent billiards players in my day, none of which can rival the skill at which you two ladies are playing”, Doc cut in, in awe of the seemingly professional game taking place before his eyes.

“My family was highly competitive and required perfection in nearly everything. As a result I may have slaved many hours over a felt covered table practicing shot after shot”, Lena replied, while slamming a ball into the corner pocket with scary precision. 

“I’ve actually rarely played”, Ava touted cockily earning a glance from an extremely focused Lena.

“Ya right Ava! You aren’t fooling anyone. Nobody lasts this long against me and I’m even trying to win right now.”

“No I’m being serious”, Ava giggled nursing her drink, “Perks of being a clone programmed to complete tasks thoroughly. Apparently they felt pool was an essential skill.”

Lena knew it was a big deal for Ava to joke about being a clone. It just meant that her little girls night out idea was working and Ava was finally getting some much needed stress relief. Ava wasn’t scared to bring up being a clone as she knew Lena wouldn’t judge her and the bar patrons would be too drunk to remember or even care.

“So what I’m hearing is I’m giving you a run for your money even though you’re literally programmed to defeat me?”, Lena smiled smugly, “I’ll count that as a win in my books.”

A rough looking and very intoxicated biker guy came up behind Ava and slung his arm around her shoulder, “Hey there beautiful. You’re pretty talented with that cue. Why don’t you come out back with me and use those skills on my cue.”

Ava swiftly and roughly disentangled herself from his arms while Lena proceeded to laugh her ass off. 

“Yeah I’m DEFINITELY going to have to pass on that”, Ava responded seriously.

The man was highly annoyed by Lena’s laughter and Ava’s public rejection of him. He lurched forward and grabbed her wrist tightly, “No need to play hard to get baby. One way or another you’ll come outside with me.”

Lena doubled over in laughter, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Her girlfriend is a highly skilled assassin, she’ll kill you a thousand times over. That is, if Ava doesn’t kick your ass first!”

This time the man laughed and pulled on Ava’s arm, “Yeah right! Like a couple of girls are going to rough me up. Let’s go baby, I like a girl with some fight in her.”

Ava sighed, “Can’t say we didn’t warn you.” Ava turned quickly, pinning the man’s arm against his back and swiping his legs out from beneath him sending him to the floor with a sickening crunch. Ava dusted her hands off and the man sat up with glowing red eyes and holding his bloodied nose. 

“WHAT THE FUCK YOU BITCH I’M GOING TO…”

The man was interrupted by a woman with luscious hair wearing a leather jacket with a large revolver holstered on her hip. “Tell her you’re sorry and that you’ll never bother her or anyone like that ever again?”

The man suddenly looked frightened and quickly stood up and fled from the bar as if his life depended on it.

The woman turned to Ava and gave her a once over, “Nice moves and damn your hair looks amazing. Is that natural? Names Wynonna. It’s not too often that the rev heads get their balls busted by someone who isn’t me. I could get used to this.”

Ava sobered up a bit in an effort to be serious, “Ava, oh and the apparent pool shark over there is Lena. And yes my hair is natural, is yours? Also rev heads?”

Wynonna pulled a bottle of Jack out of thin air and took a swig before answering, “Hell yeah it is! I was born with these wild waves. Come with me, let’s drink. I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The three returned to the bar where the bartender Waverly immediately grabbed two more bottles of whiskey, placing one before Wynonna and the other between Lena and Ava.

Lena placed her hand over her heart and feigned shock, “Waverly, I’m hurt! You don’t think we can keep up with Wynonna here?”

Waverly started laughing, “My sister practically brushes her teeth with alcohol. She has built up quite the tolerance.”  
Wynonna grinned and drank straight from the bottle, “Earp family tradition.”

“Sisters?”, Lena asked, noting the stark differences between the two.

“Well half sisters. But we don’t act like it”, Waverly shrugged, wiping over the bar and looking over her shoulder at the same smiling redhead from earlier.

“Waves, stop ogling Nicole and just go get your girl already”, Wynonna teased, causing Waverly to blush and awkwardly wave as she retreated to said girl.

“I had no idea she was into girls!”, Lena mumbled.

“Why, you interested?”, Ava joked, “You better not talk too loud, Kara might hear you.”

Lena briefly paled at the implication but then began to laugh as well, “While Waverly is a very beautiful and likable girl, I already have my hands full with Kara and by looks of it she has hers full as well.”

“Oh you have NO idea, our house has really thin walls”, Wynonna mumbled. 

Many shared drinks and hilarious drunken conversations later, Wynonna took her leave after pledging drink with the two again some other time. The bar had mostly emptied out and there was a kind of peaceful serenity hanging over it. Lena and Ava were way past the point of serving but Waverly didn’t want to ruin their fun so she poured them virgin drinks knowing they were too drunk to notice.

Ava suddenly erupted in giggles causing Lena to laugh along without even knowing the cause.

“What are you laughing at?”, Lena giggled out

“Nothing.”

“Come on what’s so funny?”

“It’s nothing, I can’t ask you that”, Ava laughed.

“Ava I’ve shared my deep dark depressing childhood and gotten shitfaced with you in my secret bar. I assure you, you can ask me anything.”

Ava finally stopped laughing enough to proceed, “What’s it like?”

“What is what like?”

“You knowwwwww”, Ava slurred out.

“I can assure you Ava, I have no clue what you’re referring to.”

“What’s it like being with”, Ava leaned in really close and whispered, “Supergirllllllll in the bedroom?”

Lena choked on her drink and blushed, “It’s good.”

“It’s good? That’s really all you’re gonna give me? Does she use her powers?”

“Okay okay”, Lena giggled, “Sometimes and yes it is more than good. It’s otherworldly.”

“I knew it!!!”

“Oh you knew it huh? Ava Sharpe have you been thinking about Supergirl in the bedroom?”, Lena asked in a seductive tone.

Ava flushed beet red, “N...n...oooooo of course not! I was only curious.”

“It’s okay, I was curious too before it became my reality”, Lena smiled smugly, “Don’t worry I won’t tell Sara. Speaking of Sara, what’s it like with your cocky little assassin? I’m sure she has some tricks up her sleeve. Kara tells me she has left an impression all throughout time. That and Alex gets all squeamish at the mention of her name.”

“Ah, so you’ve heard of my girlfriend sleeping her way across the timeline. I can’t even begin to explain all the damage she could have done to history with her little endeavors. Plus she broke like sooooo many time bureau protocols. Even so, I like to think I tamed the beast that is Sara Lance.”

“And I like to think I wouldn’t be so persistent about that question if I wasn’t so drunk, nice deflection by the way”, Lena replied slyly.

“Wellllllll if you must know, Sara is mindblowing in the bedroom. She’s the perfect mix of sensual and passionate while still being all sexy and predatory. I’ve never been with someone like her before, she's just absolutely perfect”, Ava responded, going off in a sort of trance halfway through her answer.

Lena caught on to the change in Ava’s demeanor and nudged the hand holding her drink with her elbow. “Hey, where’d you go?”

Ava shook off her trance and finished her drink, “I’m sorry. I think I should get back to the wave rider and check on Sara.”

“Ava, you know Gideon would have notified you if there were any changes. We can go back though if you’d like”, Lena said with concern.

Ava paused then looked at Lena seriously, “How do you do it?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“How are you not concerned about Kara right now. I mean I’m worried about my girlfriend who is sitting safely on a time ship while yours is out saving the world.”

Lena chuckled and took a sip of her drink, “Oh I’m worried, all this alcohol helps with that. But in all seriousness, I know Kara will always do everything in her power to get back to me. That and I put a monitor in her suit that alerts me if there are any negative changes to her vitals. Plus, Kara texted and let me know she got home safe a couple of hours ago. She figured she’d leave us be and went out for some drinks with Alex and Maggie.”

Ava gasped in her drunken state, “That's actually so smart, you really are a genius. Too bad Sara wears costumes all the time so that won’t really work for me. I’ll just have to stick to the alcohol.” 

Ava raised her glass to her lips before realizing it was empty. “Aw damn”, she mumbled.

“Well I think I’ve gotten you sufficiently drunk to drown out your worries. And I for one am one sip away from blacking out. Let’s go home”, Lena stood up shakily and placed a generous amount of money in the tip jar. 

“Aw come on the party’s just gettin started”, Ava teased standing up and trying to catch her balance.

The pair walked outside to an alleyway 

Lena started giggling as Ava messed with her time courier, “Beam me up, Scotty.”

Ava snorted and braced herself against the wall laughing. She got the portal open and the pair stumbled through, doubled over in laughter just outside the ship.

Kara stood there smiling watching the two. It wasn’t often Lena let herself have fun like that and Ava seemed to be in a better mood. “Well it certainly looks like you too had some fun tonight. Where’d you guys go?”

Ava looked at Lena with wide eyes then gestured she was zipping her lips which caused Lena to erupt in another fit of giggles.

“Itssssssss a secret babe”, Lena finally answered, earning a sad puppy look out of Kara.

“Oh is it now? No worries I’ll get it out of you later”, Kara teased before looking at the other woman, “Ava are you going to be alright here by yourself tonight? Lena has like a million spare rooms if you need to stay with us.”

“No thanks, I don’t want to hear you guys having supersex”, Ava mumbled, cracking herself up.

“You what?!”, Kara blushed, having heard exactly what Ava said with her enhanced hearing.

“Nothing. I’ll be fine here, thanks though. And thanks for tonight Lena”, Ava answered, completely confident nobody had heard her earlier comment.

Lena hugged Ava tightly, “Of course. Take care of yourself Ava. And anytime you want to talk you know where to find me.”

“I’ll try my best. I’d say let me know when you get home safe but you’re literally flying in the arms of Supergirl so I’m pretty sure you’ll be fine”, Ava joked.

“It was nice seeing you Ava. Let me know if anything changes with Sara”, Kara smiled genuinely before scooping Lena up in her arms.

“Sure thing. Goodnight guys.”

Ava watched as they took off into the sky and disappeared. She climbed aboard the silent ship and made her way to her makeshift bed in the medbay. She gave Sara a quick kiss before passing out from a mixture of exhaustion and alcohol.


	14. Ass Kicking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our favorite ex-girlfriend Nyssa returns to whip Ava back into shape with a little (or a lot) of tough love.

As the days went by Ava felt herself growing less and less optimistic. She was gradually losing hope that she’d ever see those beautiful blue eyes again. That she would never hear her voice again or watch the way she can’t help but smile whenever Ava said she loves her. At one point she had even considered going back and time to watch some of her past encounters with Sara but decided it wasn’t worth the risk and would only cause more heartache. Ava’s emotions changed almost daily. It had almost become a shitty game for her to try and predict how she would wake up in the morning. Some days she felt depressed, other sad, most of the time she just felt numb. Today she just felt angry. Angry at the world from taking Sara from her. Angry at herself for trusting that a Legends mission would go as planned. Angry at Zari and Mick for not telling her sooner. She was even angry at Gideon for not being able to fix her despite knowing it was irrational for her to think that way. Today was not the day to mess with Ava Sharpe. So when Ava trudged into the kitchen with a scowl on her face and slammed her mug down under the coffee maker, most everyone realized the need to stay out of her way. Everyone except for Ray of course.

“Good morning Ava! You know you really should start the day off with a smile! Science shows that a leader in a positive mood helps to boost the morale of their team”, Ray happily exclaimed while Nora looked at him in disbelief.

“Read the room Ray”, Zari mumbled, grabbing another doughnut from the fabricator and quickly scampered out of the room.

Ray looked confused, “What? I was just trying to be helpful!”

Nora stood up and grabbed Ray by the back of his shirt leading him out of the room. “I’m just gonna take him away now. Pretend we were never here Ava.”

Ava let out a sigh of relief as she was once again left alone. She didn’t want to burst at Ray, as he was just trying to be nice but today she was really not in the mood. She tasted her coffee before taking a tip from Charlie’s book and poured a dash of whiskey in. If she was going to be miserable all day anyways then she might as well not remember it. She almost wished for a shot of Kara and Barry’s alien alcohol to get her through this day sooner. As she walked down the corridor, she stopped in front of the medbay doors. Normally she would spend her mornings by Sara’s side but decided the sight of Sara lying there motionless would just further ruin her mood. Instead, she made her way to the captain's bedroom and threw on one of Sara’s hoodies. Ava collapsed onto the bed and ran her hand aimlessly along the nightstand for a bottle of something. She cringed as one of the empty bottles littering the table fell off and shattered on the floor. 

“A problem for future Ava,” she thought to herself as she took a swig from the nearly empty bottle she had managed to find. Ava grabbed her earbuds out of her pocket and placed them in her ears, blasting the music to drown out her thoughts. She flipped the hood up over her head and pulled the strings, making the hoodie cover most of her face. She closed her eyes and let the hours pass by along with the music, occasionally taking a drink from the bottle resting in her hand. She had informed Gideon to lock the door, nobody was to bother her today. She desired to be undisturbed in her self-loathing. 

Sometime later Ava felt her earbuds being ripped out of her ears and was jolted back to reality by an uninterested voice, “What a pathetic sight.”

Ava narrowed her eyes and scrambled to tug her hood down to see the source of the voice. 

“What the fuck are you doing here”, Ava demanded.

The woman, still refusing to give her attention to Ava, walked along the room inspecting decor. She stopped at a sword smiling fondly before smoothly drawing it from its sheath and twirling it in her hands.

Ava angrily crossed the room yanking the sword out of the womans grasp, gently placing it back in its sheath.

“That’s not yours to fucking touch!”Ava barked as she placed it back in its place one the shelf.

The woman snorted. “Considering it was stolen from me I can do with it what I wish. Alas, I didn’t come here to argue with you over material possessions.”

“What do you want Nyssa?”, Ava growled.

“And here I thought you’d be happy so see your old friend”, Nyssa scoffed.

“I’m not going to play your game. Why are you here?”, Ava demanded again. 

Nyssa continued her inspection of the room kicking at the broken bottle on the ground, “Your AI called me.”

“Gideon?!”, Ava exclaimed confusedly. 

“How can I help you, Captain Sharpe?”

“Captain Sharpe? Congratulations on your promotion Ava. Although I must say it’s a shame you couldn’t even wait until Sara was gone before stealing her job”, Nyssa jabbed.

The comment cut Ava like a knife as she glared at Nyssa icily. She tried to control her anger as she demanded a response from Gideon, “Why did you bring this annoyance into my room?”

“Oh, so this is your room now too! I suppose that’s for the best. It reeks of depression in here. Sara would be appalled by your…”, Nyssa picked a bra off of the chair before adding it to the large pile of clothing on the floor and sitting down sideways, letting her legs hang over the arm, “renovations.”

“Get out now”, Ava growled trying her best to stay calm.

“No need to get so agitated Ava, I’m only here to help”, Nyssa quipped.

“Oh yeah sure!”, Ava burst, one push away from snapping, “You’re here to help, yet you violate my privacy only to do what exactly? Because so far all you’re succeeding in is pissing me off.”

“Pardon me. Captain Sharpe”, Gideon interrupted, “I brought Miss Al Ghul here in hopes that she could help you relieve some of your anger. Perhaps in the training room?”

Ava massaged her forehead, trying to rid herself of the rapidly approaching migraine, “Let me get this straight Gideon. You brought my girlfriends ex here so we could fight?! I swear, when I get done with this I’m replacing you with an AI that has less personality!”

“I must admit I was shocked to get the call. You’re even more pitiful than I ever could have imagined. I don’t see how Gideon thinks you will be a fit match for someone of my skill, especially with you in this sorry state. I feel sorry for Sara when she awakens. She will be so disappointed in how you’ve been handling things”, Nyssa provoked while walking away in the direction of the training room.

Ava stormed out into the corridor grabbing Nyssa’s shoulder and slamming her into the cold metal wall, “Say her name again.”

“So much anger. Maybe Sara would be better off with me”, Nyssa sneered, she could see the fire reappearing in Ava’s eyes. Her teasing, although harsh, was working.

Ava threw a hard punch at Nyssa’s face that was swiftly and easily dodged, leaving Ava’s fist to smash into the metal wall of the Waverider. The adrenaline pumping through her veins allowed her to ignore the bloodied knuckles and continue her pursuit of a laughing Nyssa. Ava charged down the hallway, footsteps echoing loudly throughout the ship.

“Better off with you?”, Ava scoffed incredulously, “You were so much better for her when you kidnapped her family and tried to force her to go back with you. I’d die before I let Sara go back to the likes of you.”

She was too distracted by her rage to realize Nyssa was leading her straight to the training room. Nyssa ran in first, the door closing behind her. She quickly used her agility to her advantage propelling off the all to balance herself on the ledge above the door frame. Ava came barreling through the door moments later, frantically looking around for the red and black-clothed woman. Nyssa silently dropped down behind Ava and whispered in her ear before kicking the back of her knee causing her to fall to the floor, “So just because she’s unconscious you make decisions for her too? Sara bows to no one. I won’t even have to try to steal her away from you. After she sees what you’ve become she’ll be done with you. I’ll just happen to be there to comfort her broken heart and my beloved will be mine once again.”

Ava used her position on the ground to her advantage kicking her leg out low in an attempt to trip Nyssa. Nyssa easily avoided the attack and laughed, “Your movements are so sloppy. They must have missed the combat skill when they were programming you.”

The clone comment did not go unnoticed by Ava who was angrier at this point than she had ever been in her entire life. That topic was off-limits to everyone. How dare she insult her like that. Ava quickly jumped to her feet and raised her fists, stalking towards Nyssa. Ava threw a series of punches, each being easily blocked by Nyssa.

“YOU DON’T GET TO SAY THAT!”, Ava snarled, using her anger to fuel her continuous offensive.

Nyssa continued to let Ava take her anger out on her, slowly leading her to her main point. Due to Ava’s rage, all of her attacks were easily avoided so she didn’t feel a need to attack. Instead, she chose to continue her verbal assault, “You think Sara is going to want to wake up to find this broken mess of a woman? Maybe you’ve just reached your physical limits. Just another defective clone to add to the list. At least it will be simple enough to go get a replacement.” 

At that Ava felt fire creep through her veins. She was too angry and focused on catching Nyssa that she couldn’t even speak. She charged Nyssa with a rage she had never felt before. Each comment had cut her down, and each missed attack bruised her already battered ego until she could take no more. Nyssa dodged Ava’s arms and swiftly moved behind Ava using her momentum to push her to the ground hard.

Nyssa placed her boot on Ava’s back preventing her from getting back up despite her struggles. “Sara deserves better than this”, Nyssa spat, “Better than a woman who is so riddled with self-hatred she can barely get through the day. Better than a woman who drowns herself in liquor rather than dealing with her issues. Look at you! You’re withering away!” 

Ava felt exhaustion, both mentally and physically, weighing down her body. Being trapped against the floor, she was forced to listen to every barbed word out of Nyssa’s mouth. She used all of her strength to try and push herself back up to no avail.

“It’s a good thing you’re fighting me instead of a real enemy. Fighting like this, anyone could end you easily. At this rate, Sara will wake up to you in a grave. You secretly want that though, don’t you? You want someone to end your suffering.”

Nyssa’s words hit her like a knife through her heart. She stopped struggling and relaxed against the mat, letting silent tears fall from her eyes. Anger leaving her system and feeling distraught at having been caught. She had thought that nobody had suspected that. It was as if Nyssa could see straight into her mind. Everything Nyssa was saying was true. Around the time Ava had started doubting if Sara would wake up, those thoughts had popped up in her mind. At first she was shocked and forced the thoughts away. But as the days passed, they resurfaced more intensely. Ava had tried her best to hide it. Sure everyone knew she was in pain, but they didn’t know to what extent. Ava had considered on multiple occasions just letting something happen to her on a mission. Just getting a little sloppy and letting the next big bad end her life. End her suffering. Everyone would just think she was just another fatality of the job. No one would suspect it was what she had really wanted to happen. Without Sara she had no life. Without Sara she had nothing. There was nobody who really needed her. The Legends would just appoint a new captain and move on. After all, they were Sara’s friends first, she was just the ‘Captain's girlfriend’. She had no family. The world didn’t even know she existed. What was the point of being there if she was just going to live out the rest of her days miserable and alone. 

“Well too fucking bad!”, Nyssa removed her boot from Ava’s back and kicked her in the ribs, “You don’t get to quit just because of one setback!”

Ava stayed motionless on the floor, trying her hardest to hide her sobs. 

“You know when Sara wakes up she’s going to need you. She’s going to need normalcy and stability, not to take care of your miserable ass! Sara would never give up on you. Why have you given up on her so easily?”, Nyssa spoke with emotion in her voice. No matter how many years passed, she would always care for Sara. She needed to do this for Sara.

Ava sat up slowly, putting her head in her hands. Nyssa watched her closely, hoping she had finally gotten through to the woman. Despite her efforts to hide them, Nyssa could see the tears falling to the floors.

“You’re right”, Ava croaked out, “You’re right about everything. I miss her so fucking much but that’s no excuse. I’m weak. Ever since it happened all of my happiness has been gone. I have so many negative thoughts all the time. I don’t know how to live without her. I don’t want to live without her.”

Nyssa carefully put a hand on Ava’s shoulder, “Nobody expects you to be perfectly okay. You know that I love Sara. I love her and I need her to have happiness and I will do whatever it takes to make sure she gets it. Even if that means kicking her beloveds ass until you realize how fucking stupid you’ve been. Sara cares about you, so I care about you. If you’re going to be the one for her, then I need to make sure you are alive and well for her when she wakes up.”

“You can’t kick my ass”, Ava grumbled.

“I believe I just did”, Nyssa smiled, seeing the old competitive Ava making an appearance.

“You only won because you were being such an asshole I couldn’t think beyond punching you in your smug fucking face”, Ava stood up, eyes no longer filled with rage or defeat. 

“I had to be to get through that thick head of yours”, Nyssa smirked.

Ava tore off Sara’s hoodie and tossed it to the side, leaving her in a sports bra, sweatpants, and boots. She entered a fighting stance and looked at Nyssa expectedly, “Let’s go right now. I’m more clear-headed now.”

Nyssa eyed Ava up, stopping for a second at her abs. She was smaller than before due to her lack of self-care but Nyssa couldn’t deny she was still an attractive woman. Nyssa wolf-whistled, “I think I’m starting to understand what Sara likes about you.” 

“Oh fuck off”, Ava laughed, “Fight me already.”

“Well if you insist on me destroying you again, I will be happy to oblige”, Nyssa lunged before finishing her sentence landing a kick to Ava’s side.

“What the fuck Nyssa!”, Ava exclaimed attempting to block Nyssa’s continuous attacks, “I wasn’t ready!”

“Is that what you tell your enemies too”, Nyssa teased.

“Keep being a smart ass”, Ava replied on the defense, “see where it gets you.”

Nyssa saw an opening in Ava’s defense and kicked only to realize too late that Ava had only pretended to be defenseless. Ava grabbed Nyssa’s leg and pulled, making her fall to the ground hard. Ava pounced on Nyssa but she wasn’t quick enough and Nyssa rolled out of the way. Nyssa quickly jumped on Ava’s back wrapping her legs around her torso and arms around her neck. Ava stood with Nyssa on her back before jumping backward to smash Nyssa to the ground. 

“Fuck”, Nyssa groaned as she lay on the mat, Ava giving her some time to recover, “I guess you do have some fight in you.”

“Get up. I’m not done with you yet”, Ava snarked.

Nyssa jumped to her feet and resumed her fighting stance, planning a different method of attack. Nyssa used her agility to dodge Ava’s heavy punches and get behind her, hitting her several times in the back. Ava elbowed behind her blindly catching Nyssa in the stomach making her double over. Ava swung around into a roundhouse kick swiping Nyssa off her feet, sending her to her back once again. 

“What's wrong Nyssa?”, Ava joked, “I thought you said you were going to kick my ass.”

“And I plan to do so”, Nyssa replied in an annoyed tone. 

“What was that? I can’t hear you from down there on the flo…”, Ava was cut off by Nyssa using her arms to spring off the floor and wrapping her thighs around Ava’s neck. Nyssa used her strength to flip Ava over her, slamming her to the mat. 

“You were saying?”, Nyssa replied cockily, a satisfied look on her face.

“You only get me when you catch me by surprise”, Ava grumbled pushing herself off the ground.

Ava resumed her stance and moved towards Nyssa slowly, using more of a boxing technique. She sent out an array of punches and jabs, some landing, others being blocked. Nyssa worked on her dodging, trying to move quickly and keep momentum. She could tell Ava was getting frustrated with all of her misses, but Nyssa was trying to get her to run out of endurance. Once she believed Ava was sufficiently tired, delivered a high kick to Ava’s face, sure to leave a bruise. Ava looked dazed for a moment but quickly shook it off and continued her onslaught. While Nyssa was faster, Ava was stronger and her hits did more damage. Ava pushed forward, landing more and more hits, wearing Nyssa down. Ava was about to swing a hook at Nyssa’s head but backed off at the last second, confusing Nyssa. She used the moment of confusion to deliver a swift kick to Nyssa’s chest, sending her flying against the wall. Nyssa hit the wall hard, knocking the wind out of her. 

“Had enough yet?”, Ava questioned, still in a defensive stance.

“I have to say, Ava, I’m impressed”, Nyssa panted, “I know when to wave the white flag.”

“Just to clarify, you are forfeiting?”, Ava smiled, eager to make Nyssa admit her defeat.

“Yes Ava”, Nyssa sighed, “I’m forfeiting.”

Ava couldn’t contain her excitement and did a little happy dance, fist-pumping the air. She moved over to Nyssa and offered her hand to help pull her off the ground. 

Nyssa swatted it away playfully and got up herself, “Next time, we fight with swords. Then we’ll see who’s dancing around.”

“Sounds like someone just likes to get their ass kicked”, Ava teased.

“It seems my job here is done”, Nyssa turned her head to hide her smile.

Ava rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. Despite Nyssa’s chaotic entrance, Ava had ended up enjoying their time together. The two walked out into the hall heading towards the bridge. 

“Look Nyssa, I know we have a really weird friendship?”, Ava treaded carefully, but earned an accepting nod from Nyssa, “But I want to thank you for what you did for me. Really, I’ve felt like shit for the past couple of months. Today you have made me feel the most alive since before Sara…well you know. Nobody else has been able to do that. You made me realize how wrong and selfish I’ve been. I owe you.”

“I’m sorry for saying such rude things earlier, but I was just trying to make you feel something”, Nyssa added sincerely.

“No. Don’t apologize. I deserved it”, Ava replied seriously.

Charlie, John, and Mick were sitting in the Captain's quarters nursing bottles of whisky when they saw Ava and Nyssa appear at the bridge looking disheveled and covered in bruises. 

“Have I drank too much booze or is that Nyssa al Ghul?”, John slurred sitting forward in his seat for a closer look.

“No, that’s definitely Nyssa. I’d recognize that fine woman anywhere. Should we be concerned?”, Charlie asked, focused on Nyssa.

“Nah”, Mick grumbled.

They watched as Ava and Nyssa appeared to have a friendly conversation before Ava opened up a portal for Nyssa and shook her hand. 

“Wait. Is Ava actually smiling?”, Charlie asked in disbelief.

“Well whaddya know”, John cheered.

“Pantsuit’s back”, Mick raised his glass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't actually know if anyone is still reading this or not but if you are seeing this thanks for sticking around. I tried writing on a schedule but the more I did that the less I actually wanted to write so that's why I took a break. That and I've been busy and had a lot of distractions. Anyways, I promise I'm not quite done with this story and I won't let it go unfinished. I might just be slow on the updates. Enjoy.


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